









.0* ..•^•..*o 



/% ** 







♦♦*% 




4? 



^ ""V 



V,'**' 



,V 









G* ^b ^WJC* ,% <* # *f.T* «G* %, ''TvT* -A 



v-3^t- % / «v^Sv» % #T ^ , v ir e v %Tr;T ' 












at 






>.;--' ^..rv^^y.-.X 











3% * T^T 



0_ *^^^ ♦ r^ 













*"^ 








r- ^ ** *:, 
































J ^V 





% 0° 










• _«*>. 







PRICE 75 CENTS. $40 per IO0 Copies. 



Republican Political 

HANDBOOK 



FOR 



PUBLIC SPEAKERS 



AND 



LOCAL COMMITTEES 



COMPILED BY 



HENRY O'CONNOR 

1880. 



Evening Post Steam Presses, 208 Broadway, cor. Fulton Street. 



Republican Political 

HANDBOOK 



FOR 



PUBLIC SPEAKERS 



AND 



LOCAL COMMITTEES 



COMPILED BY 



HENEY O'OONNOE 
1880. 






Evening Post Steam Presses. 208 Broadway, cor. Fulton Street. 



1880. 



Or\r^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

HENRY O'CONNOR, 

in the OfS.Ce Of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PART I. 

The Democratic Party as the Party of Obstruction. — 
Nothing if not Purely "Bourbon." 

The history of the last session of the Forty-fifth Congress, and 
the first session of the Forty- sixth or present Congress, known as 
the extra session, is still fresh in the minds of the people. A 
brief resume, however, of that revolutionary period, even though it 
may prove tedious to the quiet and indifferent ease-loving Eepub- 
lican, is nevertheless important and necessary to the millions of 
honest, liberty-loving men and women whose hopes and patriotic 
aspirations are bound up in the progress, prosperity and perpetuity 
of this " Great Kepublic." As all the South American and Eastern 
nations invariably style it in their diplomatic papers, " The Great 
Eepublic of the North." 

Few people in the near East or the great West, who were not 
here in Washington during that six months of strain and trial 
comprising the short three-month session of the Forty-fifth, and 
the three succeeding months of the extra session, when the Demo- 
crats got control of both Houses of Congress, knew the real 
dangers that threatened the nation, and from which it was saved 
only by the firmness of a faithful and patriotic President. All 
honor to Eutherford B. Hayes for his timely and manly vetoes. 

Here is the history of that contest between a Democratic ma- 
jority in both Houses and the Executive. This Democratic ma- 
jority itself being ruled by a caucus, and the majority of that 
caucus being Southern Eebels, three-fourths of the latter being ex- 
Confederate officers, from Major -Generals down to Captains, so 
that, in fact, if we had had then in the executive chair Tilden or 
any other Democrat, the country would have been practically 
captured, and a prisoner in the hands of the traitors who had just 
come from the fields where they had spent four years trying with 
their swords to destroy it. 

It will be remembered, that in the Presidential year of 1868, New 
York, the great Empire State of the Union, Eepublican always 
since 1856, when she gave Fremont eighty thousand majority, was 
carried by Hoffman, as Governor, and Seymour, for President, by 
a few thousand majority. It turned out soon after that that suc- 
cess was achieved by means of the most glaring frauds on the 
ballot-box, on the sacred right of suffrage that had ever, up to that 
time, been perpetrated in this or any country. (True, they have 
been surpassed since in Louisiana, South Carolina and Mississippi. 
The shot gun is more effective than the " repeater," unless it be a 



repeating rifle.) Sixty thousand votes were cast in the cities of 
New York and Brooklyn by men who had no more right to vote 
in America than a man who lived in Tissn Lamoo or Terra-del- 
Fuego. Naturalization papers were hawked about in bundles 
through the low slums of New York by Democratic shoulder 
hitters, guttersnipes and vagabonds of the lowest degree, and men 
who received these papers at Castle Garden as they landed, voted 
at that election before they had been three weeks in the country. 
They were signed in blank by Democratic judges, and court seals 
fraudulently affixed *by the Democratic clerks. I have had many 
of these papers before me, and know whereof I speak. 

The thing was overdone; the sense of the nation was shocked; 
Congress took the matter in hand and passed certain laws, known 
as the Supervisor laws, and also provided for the enforcement of 
these laws and maintaining the peace at the polls by the calling 
out of the military force when the civil authority should prove 
inadequate to that duty. 

The laws which I now quote from the Eevised Statutes followed. 
I put them together here for convenience, and they will also be 
found in the several vetoes of the President, which are also 
appended. 

" Sec. 2016. The supervisors of election, so appointed, are authorized and 
required to attend at all times and places fixed for the registration of voters, 
who, being registered, would be entitled to vote for a Representative or Delegate 
in Congress, and to challenge any person offering to register ; to attend at all 
times and places when the names of registered voters may be marked for challenge, 
and to cause such names registered as they may deem proper to be so marked ; to 
make, when required, the lists, or either of them, provided for in section two 
thousand and twenty-six, and verify the same; and upon any occasion, and at 
any time when in attendance upon the duty herein prescribed, to personally 
inspect and scrutinize such registry, and for purposes of identification to affix 
their signature to each page of the original list, and of each copy of any such 
list of registered voter's, at such times, upon each day when any name may be 
received, entered, or registered, and in such manner as will, in their judgment, 
detect and expose the improper or wrongful removal therefrom, or addition 
thereto, of any name. 

Sec 2018. To the end that each candidate for the office of Representative or 
Delegate in Congress may obtain the benefit of every vote for him cast, the 
supervisors of election are, and each of them is, required to personally scrutinize, 
count, and canvass each ballot in their election district or voting precinct cast, 
whatever may be the indorsement on the ballot, or in whatever box it may have 
been placed or be found ; to make and forward to the officer who, in accordance 
with the provisions of section two thousand and twenty-five, has been designated 
as the chief supervisor of the judicial district in which the city or town wherein 
they may serve, acts, such certificates and returns of all such ballots as such 
officer may direct and require, and to attach to the registry-list, and any and all 
copies thereof and to any certificate, statement, or return, whether the same, or 
any part or portion thereof, be required by any law of the United States, or of 



any State, territorial, or municipal law, any statement touching the truth or 
accuracy of the registry, or the truth or fairness of the election and canvass, 
which the supervisors of the election, or either of them, may desire to make or 
attach, or which should properly and honestly be made or attached, in order that 
the facts may become known. 

Sec. 2020. When in any election district or voting precinct in any city or town, 
for which there have been appointed supervisors of election for any election at 
which a Representative or Delegate in Congress i3 voted for, the supervisors of 
election are not allowed to exercise and discharge, lully and freely, and without 
bribery, solicitation, interference, hindrance, molestation, violence or threats 
thereof, on the part of any person, all the duties, obligations, and powers con- 
ferred upon them by law, the supervisors of election shall make prompt report, 
under oath, within ten days after the day of election to the officer who, in accord- 
ance with the provisions of section two thousand and twenty-five, has been desig- 
nated as the chief supervisor of the judicial district in which the city or town 
wherein they served, acts, of the manner and means by which they were not so 
allowed to fully and freely exercise and discharge the duties and obligations 
required and imposed herein. And upon receiving any such report, the chief 
supervisor, acting both in such capacity and officially as a commissioner of the 
Circuit Court, shall forthwith examine into all the facts ; and he shall have power 
to subpoena and compel the attendance before him of any witness, and to admin- 
ister oaths and take testimony in respect to the charges made; and, prior to the 
assembling of the Congress for which any such Representative or Delegate was 
voted for, he shall file with the Clerk of the House of Representatives all the 
evidence by him taken, all information by him obtained, and all reports to him 
made. (See § 5522.) 

Sec. 2021. Whenever an election at which Representatives or Delegates in 
Congress are to be chosen is held in any city or town of twenty thousand inhab- 
itants or upward, the marshal for the district in which the city or town is situated 
shall, on the application, in writing, of at least two citizens residing in such city 
or town, appoint special deputy marshals, whose duty it shall be, when required 
thereto, to aid and assist the supervisors of election in the verification of any list 
of persons who may have registered or voted ; to attend in each election district 
or voting precinct at the times and places fixed for the registration of voters, and 
at all times and places when and where the registration may by law be scrutinized, 
and the names of registered voters be marked for challenge; and also to attend, 
at all times for holding elections, the polls in such district or precinct. 

Sec. 2022. The marshal and his general deputies, and such special deputies, 
4shall keep the peace, and support and protect the supervisors of election in the 
discharge of their duties, preserve order at such places of registration and at such 
polls, prevent fraudulent registration and fraudulent voting thereat, or fraudulent 
conduct on the part of any officer of election, and immediately, either at the 
place of registration or polling place, or elsewhere, and either before or after reg- 
istering or voting, to arrest and take into custody, with or without process, any 
person who commits, or attempts or offers to commit, any of the acts or offenses 
prohibited herein, or who commits any offense against the laws of the United States; 
but no person shall be arrested without process for any offense not committed in 
the presence of the marshal or his general or special deputies, or either of them, 



or of the supervisors of election, or either of them, and, for the purposes of arrest 
or the preservation of the peace, the supervisors of election shall, in the absence 
of the marshal's deputies, or if required to assist such deputies, have the same 
duties and powers as deputy marshals ; nor shall any person, on the day of such 
election, be arrested without process for any offense committed on the day of reg- 
istration. (See §§ 5521, 5522.) 

Sec. 2023. Whenever any arrest is made under any provision of this Title, the 
person so arrested shall forthwith be brought before a commissioner, judge, or 
court of the United States for examination of the offenses alleged against him ; 
and such commissioner, judge, or court shall proceed in respect thereto as author- 
ized by law in cases of crimes against the United States. 

Sec. 2024. The marshal or his general deputies, or such special deputies as are 
thereto specially empowered by him, in writing, and under his hand and seal, 
whenever he or either or any of them is forcibly resisted in executing their duties 
under this Title, or shall, by violence, threats, or menaces, be prevented from ex- 
ecuting such duties, or from arresting any person who has committed any offense 
for which the marshal or his general or his special deputies are authorized to 
make such arrest, are, and each of them is, empowered to summon and call to his 
aid the bystanders or posse comitatus of his district. 

Sec. 2025. The circuit courts of the United States for each judicial circuit shall 
name and appoint, on or before the first day of May, in the year eighteen hun 
dred and seventy-one, and thereafter as vacancies may from any cause arise, from 
among the circuit court commissioners for each judicial district in each judicial 
circuit, one of such officers, who shall be known for the duties required of him 
under this Title as the chief supervisor of elections of the judicial district for 
which he is a commissioner, and shall, so long as faithful and capable, discharge 
the duties in this Title imposed. (See § 627.) 

Sec. 2026. The chief supervisor shall prepare and furnish all necessary books, 
forms, blanks and instructions for the use and direction of the supervisors of elec- 
tion in the several cities and towns in their respective districts ; he shall receive 
the applications of all parties for appointment to such pobitions ; upon the open- 
ing, as contemplated in section two thousand and twelve, of the circuit court for 
the judicial circuit in which the commissioner so designated, acts, he shall pre- 
sent such applications to the judge thereof, and furnish information to him in re- 
spect to the appointment by the court of such supervisors of elections ; he shall 
require of the supervisors of election, when necessary, lists of the persons who 
may register and vote, or either, in their respective election districts or voting 
precincts, and cause the names of those upon any such list whose right to register 
or vote is honestly doubted to be verified by proper inquiry and examination at 
the respective places by them assigned as their residences ; and he shall receive, 
preserve and file all oaths of office of supervisors of election, and of all special 
deputy marshals appointed under the provisions of this Title, and all certificates, 
returns, reports, and records of every kind and nature contemplated or made 
requisite by the provisions hereof, save where otherwise herein specially directed. 
(See § 627.) 

Sec 2027. All United States marshals and commissioners who in any judicial 
district perform any duties under the preceding provisions relating to, concern- 
ing, or affecting the election of Representatives or Delegates in the Congress of 



7 

the United States, from time to time, and, with all due diligence, shall forward tc 
the chief supervisor in and for their judicial district, all complaints, examinations, 
and records pertaining thereto, and all oaths of office by them administered to 
any supervisor of election or special deputy marshal, in order that the same may 
be properly preserved and filed. 

Sec. 5522. Every person, whether with or without any authority, power or 
process, or pretended authority, power or process, of any State, Territory, or 
municipality, who obstructs, hinders, assaults, or by bribery, solicitation, or oth- 
erwise, interferes with or prevents the supervisors of election, or either of them, 
or the marshal or his general or special deputies, or either of them, in 
the performance of any duty required of them, or either of them, or which he 
or they, or either of them, may be authorized to perform by any law of the United 
States, in the execution of process or otherwise, or who by any of the means before 
mentioned hinders or prevents the free attendance and presence at such places of 
registration or at such polls of election, or full and free access and egress to and 
from any such place of registration or poll of election, or in going to 
and from any such place of registration or poll of election, or to 
and from any room, where any such registration or election or can- 
vass of votes, or of making any returns or certificates thereof, may be had, or 
who molests, interferes with, removes or ejects from any such place of registra- 
tion or poll of election, or of canvassing votes cast thereat, or of making returns 
or certificates thereof, any supervisor of election, the marshal, or his general or 
special deputies, or either of them; or who threatens or attempts, or offers so to 
do, or refuses or neglects to aid and assist any supervisor of election or the mar- 
shal or his general or special deputies, or either of them, in the performance of 
his or their duties, when required by him or them, or either of them, to give such 
aid and assistance, shall be liable to instant arrest without process, and shall be 
punished by imprisonment not more than two years, or by a fine of not more than 
three thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment, and shall pay the 
costs of the prosecution. 

It also contains clauses, says the President in his veto, amend- 
ing sections 2017, 2019, 2028 and 2031 of the Revised Statutes. 
Here are the sections referred to : 

" Sec. 201*7. The supervisors of election are authorized and required to attend 
at all times and places for holding elections of Representatives or Delegates in 
Congress, and for counting the votes cast at such elections ; to challenge any vote 
offered by any person whose legal qualifications the supervisors, or either of them, 
may doubt; to be and remain where the ballot-boxes are kept at all times after 
the polls are open until every vote cast at such time and place has been counted, 
the canvass of all votes polled wholly completed, and the proper and requisite 
certificates or returns made, whether the certificates or returns be required under 
any law of the United States, or any State, territorial, or municipal law, and to 
personally inspect and scrutinize, from time to time, and at all times, on the day 
of election, the manner in which the voting is done, and the way and method in 
which the poll-books, registry-lists, and tallies or check-books, whether the same 
are required by any law of the United States, or any State, territorial, or muni- 
cipal law, are kept. 



8 

Sec. 2019. The better to enable the supervisors of election to discharge their 
duties, they are authorized and directed, in their respective election districts or 
voting precincts, on the day of registration, on the day when registered voters may 
be marked to be challenged, and on the day of election to take, occupy, and remain 
in such position, from time to time, whether before or behind the ballot-boxes, as 
will, in their judgment, best enable them to see each person offering himself for 
registration or offering to vote, and as will best conduce to their scrutinizing the 
manner in which the registration or voting is being conducted ; and at the closing 
of the polls for the reception of votes. 

Sec. 2028. No person shall be appointed a supervisor of election, or a deputy- 
marshal, under the preceding provisions, who is not, at the time of his appoint- 
ment, a qualified voter of the city, town, county, parish, election district, or 
voting precinct in which his duties are to be performed. 

Sec. 2031. There shall be allowed and paid to the chief supervisor, for his ser- 
vices as such officer, the following compensation, apart from and in excess of all 
fees allowed by law for the performance of any duty as circuit-court commissioner : 
For filing and caring for every return, report, record, document, or other paper 
required to be filed by him under any of the preceding provisions, ten cents ; for 
affixing a seal to any paper, record, report, or instrument, twenty cents ; for enter- 
ing and indexing the records of his office, fifteen cents per folio ; and for arrang- 
ing and transmitting to Congress, as provided for in section two thousand and 
twenty, any report, statement, record, return, or examination, for each folio, fifteen 
cents; and for any copy thereof, or of any paper on file, a like sum. And there 
shall be allowed and paid to each supervisor of election, and each special deputy- 
marshal who is appointed and performs his duty under the preceding provisions, 
compensation at the rate of five dollars per day for each day he is actually on 
duty, not exceeding ten days ; but no compensation shall be allowed, in any case, 
to supervisors of election, except to those appointed in cities or towns of twenty 
thousand or more inhabitants. And the fees of the chief supervisors shall be paid 
at the Treasury of the United States ; such accounts to be made out, verified, 
examined, and certified as in the case of accounts of commissioners, save that the 
examination or certificate required may be made by either the circuit or district 
judge." 

These manifestly just, impartial laws for the protection and 
security of the dearest privilege that an American citizen can 
enjoy, the Democrats sought to repeal during the three months of 
the second session of the Forty-fifth Congress — first, directly, and 
then by tacking to the general appropriation. By the courage and 
superior parliamentary management ot the Eepublican minority, 
they were thwarted in their revolutionary plans, and the session 
finally ended with the end of that Congress on the 4th of March, 
leaving the Government absolutely without a dollar to run it during 
the next fiscal year. 

The Extra Session of the new Congress thus became a necessity, 
and they met in April. The Democrats now had control of both 
the Senate and House of Eepresentatives, and, under the caucus 
rule of the Brigadiers, they were able to engraft this infamous 



9 

legislation on the General Appropriation Bill, Blackburn, Single- 
ton and others making such declarations as this sample exhibits: 

" THE SOUTHERN PROGRAMME. 
[From the Hartford {Conn.) Post] 

The special work of the New York Tribune, in these days, is furnishing the 
Republicans with an incomparable mass of campaign literature. Its papers on 
the repudiation of debts at the South, the account of the massacre of the Chis- 
holm family and their friends, and the resume of reactionary legislation pending 
in Congress, which the Southern masters of the Democratic party now have the 
power as well as the will to complete, comprise a series of documents that must 
produce a marked effect upon the intelligent public sentiment of the country. 
The last-named paper proves from the files of Congress that the declaration of Mr. 
Blackburn of Kentucky that " We do not intend to stop till we have stricken the 
last vestage of your war measures from the statute book,"" was no idle threat, but 
the embodiment of a settled purpose that has already taken form in the shape of 
sweeping bills leveled at the power, the honor, the credit and the revenue of the 
National Government. These bills contain numerous provisions looking to the 
same general purpose. Some of them prohibit the removal to United States Courts 
of charges brought against revenue officers for their conduct in the discharge of 
their dut}'-, thus leaving them at the mercy of local tribunals in sympathy with 
moonshiners and revenue robbers. The passage of one of the bills for which the 
Democrats made a desperate struggle at the extra session would practically sus- 
pend the collection of internal revenue in most of the Southern States. Other 
bills propose to leave it to the "honor" of the moonshiners to report how much 
spirits they have distilled and pay 25 cents per gallon tax — a measure that would, 
it is estimated, reduce the revenue $30,000,000 ! One bill is to break the contract 
between the Government and its creditors, by virtue of which United States bonds 
were non-taxable, and several are designed to enable Southern cities and counties 
to cheat their non-resident creditors without the interference of United States 
Courts, and to compel Northern insurance companies to defend claims against 
them only in State courts. Other bills remove the restrictions against disloyal 
claimants and open wide the door for a gigantic raid on the Treasury. Still others 
are to protect timber thieves. In short, these men seem to regard themselves rs 
the agents and abettors of all who would rob the Government or the holders of 
any public securities. 

As yet, a Republican President stands in the way of the consummation of these 
plots against the supremacy of the Nation and the integrity of its Treasury. But 
the character of these measures, and the source whence they come, show what we 
may expect in case the people are hoodwinked into admitting to the Presidential 
office a Democratic tool of the ex-Confederates." 

I find, on looking at the papers now before me, that to give these 
speeches of the Rebels in extenso would fill a large volume. 

The bill with the repeal riders passed both Houses, was sent to 
the President, and here is his answer to the traitors who, failing to 
destroy the Nation with the sword, sought to starve it to death, as 
they did thousands of the Union prisoners during the war : 



10 



" VETO OF LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION BILL. 

Message from the President of the United States, returning, without his 
Approval, the Bill of the House (H. R. 2), entitled " An Act making 
Appropriations for the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Expenses of 
the Government for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1880, and for other 
Purposes." 

May 29, 1879. — Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. 
To the House of Representatives : 

After mature consideration of the bill entitled ' An act making appropriations 
for the legislative, executive and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal 
year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and for other purposes,' 
I herewith return it to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with 
the following objections to its approval: 

The main purpose of the bill is to appropriate the money required to support, 
during the next fiscal year, the several civil departments of the Government. The 
amount appropriated exceeds in the aggregate eighteen millions of dollars. 

This money is needed to keep in operation the essential functions of all the great 
departments of the Government — legislative, executive and judicial. If the bill 
contained no other provisions no objection to its approval would be made. It 
embraces, however, a number of clauses relating to subjects of great general in- 
terest, which are wholly unconnected with the appropriations which it provides 
for. The objections to the practice of tacking general legislation to appropriation 
bills, especially when the object is to deprive a co-ordinate branch of the Govern- 
ment of its right to the free exercise of its own discretion and judgment touching 
such general legislation, were set forth in the special message in relation to House 
bill number one, which was returned to the House of Representatives on the 29th 
of last month. I regret that the objections which were then expressed to this 
method of legislation have not seemed to Congress of sufficient weight to dissuade 
from this renewed incorporation of general enactments in an appropriation bill, 
and that my Constitutional duty in respect of the general legislation thus placed 
before me cannot be discharged without seeming to delay, however briefly, the 
necessary appropriations by Congress for the support of the Government. With- 
out repeating these objections, I respectfully refer to that message for a statement 
of my views on the principle maintained in debate by the advocates of this bill, 
viz., that 'to withold appropriations is a Constitutional means for the redress* 
of what the majority of the House of Representatives may regard as ' a griev- 
ance.' 

The bill contains the following clauses, viz. : 

And provided further, That the following sections of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, namely, sections two thousand and sixteen, two thousand and 
eighteen, and two thousand and twenty, and all of the succeeding sections of said 
statutes down to and including section two thousand and twenty-seven, and also 
section fifty-five hundred and twenty -two, be, and the same are hereby, repealed; 
* * * and that all the other sections of the Revised Statutes, and all laws and 
parts of laws authorizing the appointment of chief supervisors of elections, special 
deputy marshals of elections or general deputy marshals having any duties to per- 
form in respect to any election and prescribing their duties and powers and allow- 
ing them compensation, be, and the same are hereby repealed. 



11 

It also contains clauses amending sections 2017, 2019, 3028 and 2031 of the 
Revised Statutes. 

The sections of the Revised Statutes which the bill, if approved, would repeal 
or amend, are part of an act approved May 30, 1870, and anunded February 28, 
1871, entitled 'An act to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to 
vote in the several States of this Union, and for other purposes.' All of the pro- 
visions of the above-named acts, which it is proposed in this bill to repeal or 
modify, relate to the Congressional elections. The remaining portion of the law, 
which will continue in force after the enactment of this measure, is that which 
provides for the appointment, by a judge of the Circuit Court of the United 
States, of two supervisors of election in each election district, at any Congressional 
election, on due application of citizens who desire, in the language of the law, 'to 
have such election guarded and scrutinized.' The duties of the supervisors will be 
to attend at the polls at all Congressional elections, and to remain after the polls 
are open until every vote cast has been counted, but they will 'have no authority 
to make arrests, or to perform other duties than to be in the immediate presence 
of the officers holding the election, and to witness all their proceedings, including 
the counting of the votes, and the making of a return thereof.' The part of the 
election law which will be repealed by the approval of this bill includes those 
sections which give authority to the supervisors of election ' to personally scru- 
tinize, count and canvass each ballot ' and all the sections which confer authority 
upon the United States marshals and deputy marshals, in connection with the 
Congressional elections. 

The enactment of this bill will also repeal section 5522 of the criminal statutes 
of the United States, which was enacted for the protection of United States 
officers engaged in the discharge of their duties at the Congressional elections. 
This section protects supervisors and marshals in the performance of their duties, 
by making the obstruction or the assaulting of these officers, or any interference 
with them, by bribery, or solicitation, or otherwise, crimes against the United 
States. 

The true meaning and effect of the proposed legislation are plain. The super- 
visors, with the authority to observe and witness the proceedings at the Congres- 
sional elections, will be left ; but there will be no power to protect them, or to 
prevent interference with their duties, or to punish any violation of the law from 
which their powers are derived. If this bill is approved, only the shadow of the 
authority of the United States at the national elections will remain ; the substance 
will be gone. The supervision of the elections will be reduced to a mere inspec- 
tion, without authority on the part of the supervisors to do any act whatever to 
make the election a fair one. All that will be left to the supervisors is the per- 
mission to have such oversight of the elections as political parties are in the habit 
of exercising without any authority of law, in order to prevent their opponents 
from obtaining unfair advantages. The object of the bill is to destroy any control 
whatever by the United States over the Congressional elections. 

The passage of this bill has been urged upon the ground that the election of 
members of Congress is a matter which concerns the States alone; that these 
elections should be controlled exclusively b} r the States; that there are and can 
be no such elections as national elections ; and that the existing law of the United 
States regulating the Congressional elections is without warrant in the Constitution. 



12 

It is evident, however, that the framers of the Constitution regarded the election 
of members of Congress in every State and in every district as, in a very im- 
portant sense, justly a matter of political interest and concern to the whole 
country. The original provision of the Constitution on this subject is as follows 
(section 4, article 1): 

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representa- 
tives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress 
may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places 
of choosing Senators. 

A further provision has been since added, which is embraced in the fifteenth 
amendment. It is as follows : 

Sec. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or 
previous condition of servitude. 

Sec 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Under the general provision of the Constitution (section 4, article 1) Congress, 
in 1866, passed a comprehensive law, which prescribed full and detailed regula- 
tions for the election of Senators by the Legislatures of the several States. This 
law has been in force almost thirteen years. In pursuance of it all the members 
of the present Senate of the United States hold their seats. Its Constitutionality 
is not called in question. It is confidently believed that no sound argument can 
be made in support of the Constitutionality of national regulation of Senatorial 
elections which will not show that the elections of members of the House of Re- 
presentatives may also be Constitutionally regulated by the national authority. 

The bill before me itself recognizes the principle that the Congressional elec- 
tions are not State elections, but national elections. It leaves in full force the ex- 
isting statute, under which supervisors are still to be appointed by national 
authority, to 'observe and witness' the Congressional elections whenever due 
application is made b}' citizens who desire said elections to be 'guarded and 
scrutinized.' If the power to supervise, in any respect whatever, the Congres- 
sional elections exists, under section 4, article 1, of the Constitution, it is a power 
which, like every other power belonging to the Government of the United States, 
is paramount and supreme, and includes the right to employ the necessary means 
to carry it into effect. 

The statutes of the United States which regulate the election of members of the 
House of Representatives, an essential part of which it is proposed to repeal by 
this bill, have been in force about eight years. Four Congressional elections 
have been held under them, two of which were at the Presidential elections of 
1872 and 1876. Numerous prosecutions, trials and convictions have been had in 
the courts of the United States in all parts of the Union for violations of these 
laws. In no reported case has their Constitutionality been called in question by 
any judge of the courts of the United States. The validity of these laws is sus- 
tained by the uniform course of judicial action and opinion. 

If it is urged that the United States election laws are not necessary, an ample 
reply is furnished by the history of their origin and of their results. They were 
especially prompted by the investigation and exposure of the frauds committed in 
the city and State of New York at the elections of 1868. Committees represent- 



13 

ing both of the leading political parties of the country have submitted reports to 
the House of Representatives on the extent of those frauds. A committee of the 
Fortieth Congress, after a full investigation, reached the conclusion that the num- 
ber of fraudulent votes cast in the City of New York alone in 1868, was not less 
than twenty-five thousand. A committee of the Forty-fourth Congress, in their 
report submitted in 187*7, adopted the opinion that for every one hundred actual 
voters of the city of New York in 1868, one hundred and eight votes were cast, 
when, in fact, the number of lawful votes cast could not have exceeded eighty- 
eight per cent, of the actual voters of the city. By this statement the number of 
fraudulent votes at that election, in the city of New York alone was between 
thirty and forty thousand. These frauds completely reversed the result of the 
election in the State of New York, both as to the choice of governor and State 
officers, and as to the choice of electors of President and Yice-President of the 
United States. They attracted the attention of the whole country. It was plain 
that if they could be continued and repeated with impunity free government was 
impossible. A distinguished Senator, in opposing the passage of the election 
laws, declared that he had for a long time believed that our form of* Govern- 
ment was a comparative failure in the larger cities. To meet these evils and to 
prevent these crimes the United States law? regulating Congressional elections 
were enacted. 

The framers of these laws have not been disappointed in their results. In the 
large cities, under their provisions, the elections have been comparatively peace- 
able, orderly and honest. Even the opponents of these laws have borne testimony 
to their value and efficiency and to the necessity for their enactment. The com- 
mittee of the Forty-fourth Congress, composed of members a majority of whom 
were opposed to these laws, in their report on the New York election of 1876 
said : 

The committee would commend to other portions of the country and to other 
cities this remarkable system, developed through the agency of both local and 
Federal authorities acting in harmony for an honest purpose. In no portion of 
the world, and in no era of time, where there has been an expression of the popu- 
lar will through the forms of law, has there been a more complete and thorough 
illustration of republican institutions. Whatever may have been the previous 
habit or conduct of elections in those cities, or howsoever they may conduct 
themselves in the future, this election of 1876 will stand as a monument of what 
good faith, honest endeavor, legal forms and just authority may do for the pro- 
tection of the electoral franchise. 

This bill recognizes the authority and duty of the United States to appoint super- 
visors to guard and scrutinize the Congressional elections, but it denies to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States all power to make its supervision effectual. The great 
body of the people of all parties want free and fair elections. They do not think 
that a free election means freedom from the wholesome restraints of law, or that 
the place of election should be a sanctuary for lawlessness and crime. On the 
day of an election peace and good order are more necessary than on any other 
day of the year. On that day the humblest and feeblest citizens, the aged and 
the infirm should be, and should have reason to feel that they are, safe in the ex- 
ercise of their most responsible duty and their most sacred right as members of 
society — their duty and their right to vote. The Constitutional authority to 
regulate the Congressional elections, which belongs to the Government of the 



14 

United States, and which it is necessary to exert to secure the right to vote to 
every citizen possessing the requisite qualifications, ought to be enforced by ap- 
propriate legislation. So far from public opinion in any part of the country favor- 
ing any relaxation of the authority of the Government in the protection of elections 
from violence and corruption, I believe it demands greater vigor both in the. enact- 
ment and in the execution of the laws framed for that purpose. Any oppression, 
any partisan partiality, which experience may have shown in the working of ex- 
isting laws, may well engage the careful attention both of Congress and of the 
Executive, in their respective spheres of duty, for the correction of these mis- 
chiefs. As no Congressional elections occur until after the regular session of 
Congress will have been held, there seems to be no public exigency that would 
preclude a seasonable consideration at that session of any administrative details 
that might improve the present methods designed for the protection of all citizens 
in the complete and equal exercise of the right and power of the suffrage at such 
elections. But with my views, both of the constitutionality and of the value of 
the existing laws, I cannot approve any measure for their repeal, except in con- 
nection with the enactment of other legislation which may reasonably be expected 
to afford wiser and more efficient safeguards for free and honest Congressional 
elections. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
Executive Mansion, May 29, 18*79." 

The caucus was again set in motion after the reception of the 
foregoing veto message, and the Democratic majority were in- 
structed to pursue indirectly the objective point of the Rebel pol- 
icy, as announced by Blackburn, Singleton and other leaders of the 
Southern Brigadiers; namely, that the efforts of the Democracy 
would not cease until they had wiped from the statute book every 
vestage of the Republican post-war legislation. Accordingly, what 
is known as the Judicial Expense Bill was loaded in a covert way 
with all the obnoxious and revolutionary features of the General 
Appropriation Bill which had just been vetoed. 

The President was again obliged to accept the alternative of _ 
vetoing this bill or allowing the country to run to anarchy. This 
veto explains itself. Here it is : 

'* Message from the President of the United States, Assigning Objections to 
the Approval of the Bill of the House (H. R., 2255) ' Making Appro- 
priations FOR CERTAIN JUDICIAL EXPENSES.' 

June 23, 1879.— Ordered to be printed. 
To the House of Representatives : 

After careful examination of the bill entitled ' An Act making Appropriations 
for certain Judicial Expenses,' I return it herewith to the House of Representa- 
tives, in which it originated, with the following objections to its approval : 

The general purpose of the bill is to provide for certain judicial expenses of 
the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, for which the sum of 
$2,690,000 is appropriated. These appropriations are required to keep in opera- 
tion the general functions of the Judicial Department of the Government, and, if 
this part of the bill stood alone, there would be no objection to its approval. 



15 

It contains, however, other provisions, to which I desire respectfully to ask your 
attention. 

At the present session of Congress, a majority of both Houses, favoring a re- 
peal of the Congressional Election Laws embraced in the title 26 of the Revised 
Statutes, passed a measure for that purpose, as part of a bill entitled ' An Act 
making appropriations for the legislative, executive and judicial expenses of the 
Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880; and for other purposes.' 
Unable to concur with Congress in that measure, on the 29th of May last I re- 
turned the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, without 
my approval, for that further consideration for which the Constitution provides. 
On reconsideration the bill was approved by less than two-thirds of the Il^use, 
and failed to become a law. The election laws, therefore, remain valid enact- 
ments, and the supreme law of the land, binding not only upon all private citi- 
zens, but also alike and equally binding upon all who are charged with the duties 
and responsibilities of the legislative, the executive and the judicial departments 
of the Government. 

It is not sought by the bill before me to repeal the election laws. Its object is 
to defeat their enforcement. The last clause of the first section is as follows : 

And no part of the money hereby appropriated is appropriated to pay any 
salaries, compensation, fees or expenses uoder or in virtue of title 26 of the Re- 
vised Statutes, or of any provision of said title. 

Title 26 of the Revised Statutes, referred to in the foregoing clause, relates to 
the elective franchise, and contains the laws now in force regulating the Congres- 
sional elections. 

The second section of the bill reaches much further. It is as follows: 
Sec. 2. That the sums appropriated in this act for the persons and public ser- 
vice embraced in its provisions are in full for such persons and public service for 
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and no department or officer of the Govern- 
ment shall, during said fiscal year, make any contract or incur any liability for 
the future payment of money under any of the provisions of title 26 of the Re- 
vised Statutes of the United States authorizing the appointment or payment of 
general or special deputy marshals for service in connection with elections or on 
election day, until an appropriation sufficient to meet such contract or pay such 
liability shall have first been made by law. 

This section of the bill is intended to make an extensive and essential change 
in the existing laws. The following are the provisions of the statutes on the 
same subject which are now in force : 

Sec. 3679. No department of the Government shall expend, in any one fiscal 
year, any sum in excess of appropriations made by Congress for that fiscal year, 
or involve the Government in any contract for the future payment of money in 
excess of such appropriations. 

Sec. 3732. No contract or purchase on behalf of the United States shall be 
made unless the same is authorized by law, or is under an appropriation adequate 
to its fulfillment, except in the War and Navy Departments, for clothing, subsist- 
ence, forage, fuel, quarters or transportation, which, however, shall not exceed the 
necessities of the current year. 

The object of these sections of the Revised Statutes is plain. It is, first, to 
prevent any money from being expended unless appropriations have been made 
therefor ; and, second, to prevent the Government from being bound by any con- 
tract not previously authorized by law, except for certain necessary purposes in 
the War and Navy Departments. 



1G 

Under the existing laws the failure of Congress to make the appropriations re- 
quired for the execution of the provisions of the election laws would not prevent 
their enforcement. The right and duty to appoint the general and special deputy- 
marshals which they provide for would still remain, and the executive department 
of the Government would also be empowered to incur the requisite liability for 
their compensation. But the second section of this bill contains a prohibition 
not found in any previous legislation. Its design is to render the election laws 
inoperative and a dead letter during the next fiscal year. It is sought to accom- 
plish this by omitting to appropriate money for their enforcement, and by ex- 
pressly prohibiting any department or officer of the Government from incurring 
any liability under any of the provisions of title 26 of the Revised Statutes 
authorizing the appointment or payment of general or special deputy marshals 
for service on election days until an appropriatioa sufficient to pay such liability 
shall have first been made. 

The President is called upon to give his affirmative approval to positive enact- 
ments which in effect deprive him of the ordinary and necessary means of execut- 
ing laws still left in the statute-book, and embraced within his constitutional duty 
to see that the laws are executed. If he approves the bill, and thus gives to such 
positive enactments the authority of law, he participates in the curtailment of his 
means of seeing that the law is faithfully executed, while the obligation of the 
law and of his constitutional duty remains unimpaired. 

The appointment of special deputy marshals is not made by the statute a spon- 
taneous act of authority on the part of any executive or judicial officer of the 
government, but is accorded as a popular right of the citizens to call into opera- 
tion this agency for securing the purity and freedom of elections in any city or 
town having twenty thousand inhabitants or upward. Section 2021 of the Revised 
Statutes puts it in the power of any two citizens of such city or town to require of 
the marshal of the district the appointment of these special deputy marshals. 
Thereupon the duty of the marshal becomes imperative, and its non-performance 
would expose him to judicial mandate or punishment, or to removal from office 
by the President, as the circumstances of his conduct might require. The bill 
now before me neither revokes this popular right of the citizens nor relieves the 
marshal of the duty imposed by law, nor the President of his duty to see that this 
law is faithfully executed. 

I forbear to enter again upon any general discussion of the wisdom and neces- 
sity of the election laws or of the dangerous and unconstitutional principle of this 
bill, that the power vested in Congress to originate appropriations involves the 
right to compel the Executive to approve any legislation which Congress may see 
fit to attach to such bills, under the penalty of refusing the means needed to carry 
on essential functions of the government. My views on these subjects have been 
sufficiently presented in the special messages sent by me to the House of Repre- 
sentatives during their present session. What was said in those messages I 
regard as conclusive as to my duty in respect to the bill before me. The argu- 
ments urged in those communications against the repeal of the election laws and 
against the right of Congress to deprive the Executive of that separate and inde- 
pendent discretion and judgment which the Constitution confers and requires are 
equally cogent in opposition to this bill. This measure leaves the power and 
duties of the supervisors of elections untouched. The compensation of those offi- 



17 

cers is provided for under permanent laws, and no liability for which an appro- 
priation is now required would therefore be incurred by their appointment. But 
the power of the National Government to protect them in the discharge of their 
duty at the polls would be taken away. The States may employ both civil and 
military power at the elections, but by this bill even the civil authority to protect 
congressional elections is denied to the United States. The object is to prevent 
any adequate control by the United States over the national elections by forbid- 
ding the payment of deputy marshals, the officers who are clothed with authority 
to enforce the election laws. 

The fact that these laws are deemed objectionable by a majority of both Houses 
of Congress is urged as a sufficient warrant for this legislation. 

There are two lawful ways to overturn legislative enactments. One is their 
repeal ; the other is the decision of a competent tribunal against their validity. 
The effect of this bill is to deprive the executive department of the Government 
of the means to execute laws which are not repealed, which have not been declared 
invalid, and which it is, therefore, the duty of the Executive and of every other 
department of government to obey and to enforce. 

I have in my former message on this subject expressed a willingness to concur 
in suitable amendments for the improvement of the election laws; but I cannot 
consent to their absolute and entire repeal, and I cannot approve legislation which, 
seeks to prevent their enforcement. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

Executive Mansion, June 23, 18*79." 

The ingenuity of the caucus was not yet exhausted ; the South- 
ern Brigadiers ordered a battalion drill ; the old Southern slave- 
masters cracked their whips over the Northern dough-faces, and 
here is the provision of the law they next aimed to " wipe out," 
not a post-war measure, to use the language of some of the gentle- 
men themselves, but a law, the substance of which had been on 
the statute book since 1792. 

" Sec. 5298. — "Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations, or 
assemblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the Government of 
the United States, it shall become impracticable, in the judgment of the President, 
to enforce, by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws of the United 
States within any State or Territory, it shall be lawful for the President to call 
forth the militia of any or all the States, and to employ such parts of the land and 
naval forces of the United States as he may deem necessary to enforce the faithful 
execution of the laws of the United States, or to suppress such rebellion, in what- 
ever State or Territory thereof the laws of the United States may be forcibly 
opposed, or the execution thereof forcibly obstructed." 

Here is the arm of the Executive stretched forth again to stop 
revolution. 



18 



" Message from the President of the United States, Assigning Objections 
to the Approval of the Bill of the House (H. R. 1382) entitled 'An 
Act to Prohibit Military Interference at Elections.' 

MAy 12, 1879.— Ordered to be printed.— Mat 13, 1879.— Referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary. 

To the House of Representatives ; 

After a careful consideration of the bill entitled ' An Act to Prohibit Military 
Interference at Elections,' I return it to the House of Representatives, in which it 
originated,. with the following objections to its approval: 

In the communication sent to the House of Representatives on the 29th of last 
month, returning to the House without my approval the bill entitled ' An Act 
making Appropriations for the Support of the Army for the fiscal year ending, 
June 30, 1880, and for other purposes,' I endeavored to show by quotations from 
the statutes of the United States now in force, and by a brief statement of facts in 
regard to recent elections in the several States, that no additional legislation was 
necessary to prevent interference with the elections by the military or naval forces 
of the United States. The fact was presented in that communication that at the 
time of the passage of the act of June 18, 1878, in relation to the employment of 
the Army as a posse comitatus or otherwise, it was maintained by its friends that 
it would establish a vital and fundamental principle, which would secure to the 
people protection against a standing army. The fact was also referred to that 
since the passage of this act, Congressional, State, and municipal elections have 
been Jield throughout the Union, and that in no instance has complaint been made 
of the presence of the United States soldiers at the polls. 

Holding as I do the opinion that any military interference whatever at the 
polls is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and would tend to destroy the 
freedom of elections, and sincerely desiring to concur with Congress in all of its 
measures, it is with very great regret that I am forced to the conclusion that the 
hill before me is not only unnecessary to prevent such interference, but is a dan- 
gerous departure from long-settled and important Constitutional principles. 

The true rule as to the employment of military force at the elections is not doubt. 
Jul. No intimidation or coercion should be allowed to control or influence citizens 
in the exercise of their right to vote, whether it appear in the shape of combina- 
tions of evil-disposed persons, or of armed bodies of the militia of a State, or of 
the military force of the United Stats. 

The elections should be free from all forcible interference, and, as far as practica- 
ble, from all apprehension of such interference. No soldiers, either of the Union or 
of the State militia, should be present at the polls to take the place or to perform 
the duties of the ordinary civil police force. There has been and will be no viola- 
tion of this rule under orders from me during this administration. But there 
should be no denial of the right of the national Government to employ its military 
force on any day and at any place in case such employment is necessary to en- 
force the Constitution and laws of the United States. 

The bill before me is as follows : 

Be it enacted, &c, That it shall not be lawful to bring to, or employ at, any 
place where a general or special election is being held in a State, any part of the 
Army or Navy of the United States, unless such force be necessary to repel the 



19 

armed enemies of the United States, or to enforce section 4, article 4, of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, on applica- 
tion of the Legislature or executive of the State where such force is to be used ; 
and so much of all laws as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed. 

It will be observed that the bill exempts from the general prohibition against 
the employment of military force at the polls two specified cases. These excep- 
tions recognize and concede the soundness of the principle that military force 
may properly and constitutionally be used at the place of elections, when such 
use is necessary to enforce the Constitution and the laws. But the excepted cases 
leave the prohibition so extensive and far-reaching, that its adoption will seri- 
ously impair the efficiency of the executive department of the Government. 

The first act expressly authorizing the use of military power to execute the laws 
was passed almost as early as the organization of the Government under the Con- 
stitution, and was approved by President Washington May 2, 1792. It is as 
follows : 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever the laws of the United States 
shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed, in any State, by combina- 
tions too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceed- 
ings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by this act, the same being notified 
to the President of the United States by an associate justice or the district judge, 
it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia 
ot such State to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly 
executed. And if the militia of a State where such combinations may happen 
shall refuse, or be insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the 
President, if the Legislature of the United States, be not in session, to call forth 
and employ such numbers of the militia of any other State or States most con- 
venient thereto as may be necessary ; and the use of militia, so to be called forth 
may be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the com- 
mencement of the ensuing session. 

In 1795 this provision was substantially re-enacted in a law which repealed the 
act of 1792. In 1807 the following act became the law by the approval of Presi- 
dent Jefferson : 

That in all cases of insurrection or obstruction to the laws, either of the United 
States or of any individual State or Territory, where it is lawful for the President 
of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such 
insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him 
to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or the naval forces of the 
United States as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the prerequi- 
sites of the law in that respect. 

By this act it will be seen that the scope of the law of 1795 was extended so as 
to authorize the National Government to use not only the militia but the army 
and navy of the United States in ' causing the laws to be duly executed.' 

The important provision of the acts of 1792, 1795 and 1807, modified in its 
terms from time to time to adapt it to the existing emergency, remained in force 
until, by an act approved by President Lincoln, July 29, 1861, it was re-enacted 
substantially in the same language in which it is now found in the Revised Statutes, 
Tiz : 

Sec 5298. "Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations, or as- 
semblages of persons, or rebellion against the authority of the Government of the 
United States, it shall become impracticable, in the judgment of the President, to 
■enforce, by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws of the United 



• 



20 

States within any State or territory, it shall be lawful for the President to call 
forth the militia of any or all the States, and to employ such parts of the land 
and naval forces of the United States as he may deem necessary to enforce the 
faithful execution of the laws of the United States, or to suppress such rebellion, 
in whatever State or Territory thereof the laws of the United States may be 
forcibly opposed, or the execution thereof forcibly obstructed. 

This ancient and fundamental law has been in force from the foundation of the 
Government. It is now proposed to abrogate it on certain days and at certain 
places. In my judgment no fact has been produced which tends to show that it 
ought to be repealed or suspended for a single hour at any place in any of the 
States or Territories of the Union. All the teachings of experience in the course 
of our history are in favor of sustaining its efficiency unimpaired. On every oc- 
casion when the supremacy of the Constitution has been resisted, and the per- 
petuity of our institutions imperiled, the principle of this statute, enacted by the 
fathers, has enabled the Government of the Union to maintain its authority and 
to preserve the integrity of the nation. 

At the most critical periods of our history, my predecessors in the executive 
office have relied on this great principle. It was on this principle that President 
Washington suppressed the whisky rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1*794. 

In 1806, on the same principle, President Jefferson broke up the Burr conspir- 
acy by issuing ' orders for the employment of such force either of the regulars 
or of the militia, and by such proceedings of the civil authorities, * * * as 
might enable them to suppress effectually the further progress of the enterprise/ 
And it was under the same authority that President Jackson crushed nullification 
in South Carolina, and that President Lincoln issued his call for troops to save 
the Union in 1861. On numerous other occasions of less significance, under prob- 
ably every administration, and certainly under the present, this power has been 
usefully exerted to enforce the laws, without objection by any party in the 
country, and almost without attracting public attention. 

The great elementary Constitutional principle which was the foundation of the 
original statute of 1792, and which has been its essence in the various forms it 
has assumed since its first adoption, is that the Government of the United 
States possesses under the Constitution, in full measure, the power of self-protec- 
tion by its own agencies, altogether independent of State authority, and, if need 
be, against the hostility of State governments. It should remain embodied in 
our statutes unimpaired, as it has been from the very origin of the government. It 
should be regarded as hardly less valuable or less sacred than a provision of the 
Constitution itself. 

There are many other important statutes containing provisions that are liable to 
be suspended or annulled at the times and places of holding elections, if the bill 
before me should become a law. I do not not undertake to furnish a list of them. 
Many of them — perhaps the most of them — have been set forth in the debates on 
this measure. They relate to extradition, to crimes against the election laws, to 
quarantine regulations, to neutrality, to Indian reservations, to the civil rights of 
citizens, and to other subjects. In regard to them all, it may be safely said that 
the meaning and effect of this bill is to take from the general government an im- 
portant part of its power to enforce the laws. 

Another grave objection to the bill is its discrimination in favor of the State 



21 

and against the national authority. The presence or employment of the Army 
or Navy of the United States is lawful under the terms of this bill at the place 
where an election is being held in a State to uphold the authority of a State 
government then and there in need of such military intervention, but unlawful to 
uphold the authority of the Government of the United States then and there in 
need of such military intervention, Under this bill the presence or employment 
of the Army and Navy of the United States would be lawful and might be neces- 
sary to maintain the conduct of a State election against the domestic violence that 
would overthrow it, but would be unlawful to maintain the conduct of a national 
election against the same local violence that would overthrow it. This discrimi- 
nation has never been attempted in any previous legislation by Congress, 
and is no more compatible with sound principles of the Constitution or 
the necessary maxims and methods of our system of government on occasions of 
elections than at other times. In the early legislation of 1792 and of 1795, by 
which the militia of the States was the only military power resorted to for the 
execution of the Constitutional powers in support of State or national authority, 
both functions of the Government were put upon the same footing. By the Act 
of 1807 the employment of the Army and Navy was authorized for the perform- 
ance of both Constitutional duties in the same terms. 

In all later statutes on the same subject-matter the same measure of authority 
to the Government has been accorded for the performance of both these duties. No 
precedent has been found in any previous legislation, and no sufficient reason has 
been given for the discrimination in favor of the State and against the national 
authority which this bill contains. 

Under the sweeping terms of the bill the national government is effectually 
shut out from the exercise of the right and from the discharge of the imperative 
duty to use its whole executive power whenever and wherever required for the 
enforcement of its laws at the places and times when and where its elections are 
held. The employment of its organized armed forces for any such purpose would 
be an offense against the law unless called for by, and, therefore, upon permission 
of, the authorities of the State in which the occasion arises. What is this but the 
substitution of the discretion of the State governments for the discretion of the 
Government of the United States as to the performance of its own duties? In my 
judgment, this is an abandonment of its obligations by the national government; 
a subordination of national authority and an intrusion of State supervision over 
national duties, which amounts, in spirit and tendency, to State supremacy. 

Though I believe that the existing statutes are abundantly adequate to com- 
pletely prevent military interference with the elections in the sense in which the 
phrase is used in the title of this bill, and is employed by the people of this coun- 
try, I shall find no difficulty in concurring in any additional legislation limited to 
that object which does not interfere with the indispensable exercise of the powers 
of the government under the Constitution and laws. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES." 

People may wonder at my following up these veto messages, but 
I will follow them to the end. They make up the real struggle of 
the year that must be ever memorable, 1879, when the great 
struggle between law and order, the maintenance of self-govern- 



22 

ment and the perpetuity of the Republic, maintained on the one 
side by the President and the faithful and courageous Republican 
minority in Congress, and a brutal, blood-stained, murder-branded, 
barbaric Oligarchy of Democratic, Southern traitors and Northern 
dough-faced Copperheads, who sought to undermine by fraud the 
country that they had striven unavailingly for four years to destroy 
by force. It is the history of a struggle of barbarism, oppression, 
murder and treason on the one hand and civilization, intelligence, 
industry and progress on the other. The prelude to the great 
final battle now going on, not between two men but between these 
two sets of principles. Which shall it be, men of the North, a 
solid South and barbarism, injustice and murder, or a Solid North 
with civilization — Christian, not Oriental — education, industry, 
free and well paid labor, and happy homes for yourselves and your 
children. 

You must answer this question one way or the other to your- 
selves, your children, your country and humanity on the second 
day of November next. 

Here is the next veto. It needs no comments. It carries with 
it its own, and fairly rings and glistens with the grand patriotism 
that inspired its author : 

" VETO OF THE ARMY BILL. 

Message from the President of the United States to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, upon Returning the Bill of the House (H. R., 1) entitled 'An 
Act making Appropriations for the Support of the Army for the Fiscal 
Year ending June 30, 1880, and for other Purposes/ with his Objections 
to its Approval. 

April 30, 1879. — Made the special order for May 1, 1879, and ordered to be printed. 
To the House of Representatives : 

I have maturely considered the important questions presented by the bill en- 
titled ' An Act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1880, and for other purposes,' and I now return it to the 
House of Representatives, in which it originated, with my objections to its 
approval. 

The bill provides in the usual form for the appropriations required for the sup- 
port of the Army during the next fiscal year. If it contained no other provisions, 
it would receive my prompt approval. It includes, however, further legislation, 
which, attached as it is to appropriations which are requisite for the efncicMit per- 
formance of some of the most necessary duties of the Government, involves ques- 
tions of the gravest character. The sixth section of the bill is amendatory of the 
statute now in force in regard to the authority of persons in the civil, military, 
and naval service of the United States ' at the place where any general or special 
election is held in any State.' This statute was adopted February 25, 186 5, after 
a protracted debate in the Senate, and almost without opposition in the House of 
Representatives, by the concurrent votes of both of the leading political parties of 
the country, and became a law by the approval of President Lincoln. It was re 



23 

enacted in 1874 in the Revised Statutes of the United States, sections 2002 and 
5528, which are as follows : 

Sec. 2002. No military or naval officer, or other person engaged in the civil, 
military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring, keep, or have 
under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at the place where any 
general or special election is held in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the 
armed enemies of the United States, or to keep the peace at the polls. 

Sec. 5528. Every officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, 
military or naval service of the United States, who orders, brings, keeps, or has 
under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at any place where a 
general or special election is held in any State, unless such force be necessary to 
repel armed enemies of the United States, or to keep the peace at the polls, shall 
be fined not more than $5,000, and suffer imprisonment at hard labor not less 
than three months nor more than five years. 

The amendment proposed to this statute, in the bill before me, omits from both 
of the foregoing sections the words ' or to keep the peace at the polls.' The effect 
of the adoption of this amendment may be considered — 

First. Upon the right of the United States Government to use military force to 
keep the peace at the elections for members of Congress ; and — 

Second. Upon the right of the Government, by civil authority, to protect these 
elections from violence and fraud. 

In addition to the sections of the statute above quoted, the following provisions 
of law relating to the use of the military power at the elections are now in force : 

Sec. 2003. No officer of the Army or Navy of the United States shall prescribe 
or fix, or attempt to prescribe or fix, by proclamation, order, or otherwise, the 
qualifications of voters in any State, or in any manner interfere with the freedom 
of any election in any State, or with the exercise of the free right of suffrage in 
any State. 

Sec. 5529. Every officer, or other person in the military or naval service, who, 
by force, threat, intimidation, order, advice, or otherwise, prevents, or attempts 
to prevent, any qualified voter of any State from freely exercising the right of 
suffrage at any general or special election in such State, shall be fined not more 
than five thousand dollars, and imprisoned at hard labor not more than five years. 

Sec. 5530. Every officer of the Army or Navy who prescribes or fixes, or at- 
tempts to prescribe or fix, whether by proclamation, order or otherwise, the quali- 
fications of voters at any election in any State, shall be punished as provided in 
the preceding section. 

Sec. 5531. Every officer or other person in the military or naval service who, 
by force, threat, intimidation, order, or otherwise, compels, or attempts to compel, 
any officer holding an election in any State to receive a vote from a person not 
legally qualified to vote, or who imposes, or attempts to impose, any regulations 
for conducting any general or special election in a State, different from those pre- 
scribed by law, or who interferes in any manner with any officer of an election in 
the discharge of his duty, shall be punished as provided in section fifty-five hun- 
dred and twenty-nine. 

Sec 5532. Every person eonvicted of any of the offienses specified in the five 
preceding sections shall, in addition to the punishments therein severally pre- 
scribed, be disqualified from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under the 
United States ; but nothing in those sections shall be construed to prevent any 
officer, soldier, sailor, or marine from exercising the right of suffrage in any elec- 
tion district to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to the laws 
of the State in which he offers to vote. 

The following enactments would seem to be sufficient to prevent military inter- 
ference with the elections. But the last Congress, to remove all apprehension of 
such interference, added to this body of law section 15 of an act entitled ' An act 



24 

making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 18*19, and for other purposes,' approved June 18, 1878, which is as follows: 

Sec. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ 
any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus or otherwise, for 
the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circum- 
stances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Con- 
stitution or by act of Congress ; and no money appropriated by this act shall be 
used to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any troops in vio- 
lation of this section, and any person willfully violating the provisions of this sec- 
tion shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be 
punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars or imprisonment not exceed- 
ing two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 

This act passed the Senate, after full consideration, without a single vote re- 
corded against it on its final passage, and, by a majority of more than two-thirds 
it was concurred in by the House of Representatives. 

The purpose of the section quoted was stated in the Senate by one of its sup- 
porters as follows : 

Therefore I hope, without getting into any controversy about the past, but acting 
wisely for the future, that we shall take away the idea that the Army can be used 
by a general or special deputy marshal, or any marshal, merely for election pur- 
poses as & posse, ordering them about the polls or ordering them anywhere else, 
when there is no election going on, to prevent disorders or to suppress disturbance 
that should be suppressed by the peace officers of the State, or, if they must bring 
others to their aid, they should summon the unorganized citizens, and not summon 
the officers and men of the Army as a posse comitatus to quell disorders, and 
thus get up a feeling which will be disastrous to peace among the people of the 
country. 

In the House of Representatives the object of the act of 1878 was stated by 
the gentleman who had it in charge in similar terms. He said : 

But these are all minor points and insignificant questions compared with the 
great principle which was incorporated by the House in the bill in reference to 
the use of the Army in time of peace. The Senate had already conceded what 
they called, and what we might accept, as the principle, but they had stricken out 
the penalty, and had stricken out the word ' expressly,' so that the Army might 
be used in all cases where implied authority might be inferred. The House com- 
mittee planted themselves firmly upon the doctrine that rather than yield this 
fundamental principle, for which for three years this House had struggled, they 
would allow the bill to fail, notwithstanding the reforms which we had secured, 
regarding these reforms as of but little consequence alongside the great principle 
that the Army of the United States, in time of peace, should be under the con- 
trol of Congress and obedient to its laws. After a long and protracted negotiation, 
the Senate committee have conceded that principle in all its length and breadth, 
including the penalty, which the Senate had stricken out. We bring you back, 
therefore, a report, with the alteration of a single word, which the lawyers assure 
me is proper to be made, restoring to this bill the principle for which we have 
contended so long and which is so vital to secure the rights and liberties of the 
people. 

* * * * ***** 

Thus have we, this day, secured to the people of this country the same great 
protection against a standing army which cost a struggle of two hundred years for 
the Commons of England to secure for the British people. 

From this brief review of the subject it sufficiently appears that, under existing 
laws, there can be no military interference with the elections. No case of such 
interference has, in fact, occurred since the passage of the act last referred to. No 



25 

soldier of the United States has appeared under orders at any place of election in 
any State. No complaint even of the presence of United States troops has been made 
in any quarter. It may, therefore, be confidently stated that there is no necessity 
for the enactment of section six of the bill before me to prevent military interfer- 
ence with the elections. The laws already in force are ail that is required for 
that end. 

But that part of section six of this bill which is significant and vitally important, 
is the clause which, if adopted, will deprive the civil authorities of the United 
States of all power to keep the peace at the Congressional elections. The Con- 
gressional elections in every district, in a very important sense, are justly a matter 
of political interest and concern throughout the whole country. Each State, every 
political party is entitled to the share of power which is conferred by the legal and 
Constitutional suffrage. It is the right of every citizen possessing the qualifica- 
tions prescribed by law, to cast one unintimidated ballot, and to have his ballot 
honestly counted. So long as the exercise of this power and the enjoyment of this 
right are common and equal, practically as well as formally, submission to the 
results of the suffrage will be accorded loyally and cheerfully, and all the depart- 
ments of government will feel the true vigor of the popular will thus expressed. 

Two provisions of the Constitution authorize legislation by Congress for the reg- 
ulation of the Congressional elections. 

Section 4 of Article 1 of the Constitution declares — 

The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Represent- 
atives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Con- 
gress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations except as to the 
places of choosing Senators. 

The fifteenth amendment of the Constitution is as follows : 

Sec. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or pre- 
vious condition of servitude. 

Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

The Supreme Court has held that this amendment invests the citizens of the 
United States with a new Constitutional right which is within the protecting 
power of Congress. That right the court declares to be exemption from discrim- 
ination in the exercise of the elective franchise on account of race, color, or pre- 
vious condition of servitude. The power of Congress to protect this right by ap- 
propriate legislation is expressly affirmed by the court. 

National legislation to provide safeguards for free and honest elections is neces- 
sary, as experience has shown, not only to secure the right to vote to the enfran- 
chised race at the South, but also to prevent fraudulent voting in the large cities 
of the North. Congress has, therefore, exercised the power conferred by the Con- 
stitution, and has enacted certain laws to prevent discriminations on account of 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and to punish fraud, violence, and 
intimidation at federal elections. Attention is called to the following sections of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States, viz : 

Section 2004, which guarantees to all citizens the right to vote without dis- 
tinction on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Sections 2005 and 2006, which guarantee to all citizens equal opportunity, 



26 

without discrimination, to perform all the acts required by law as a prerequisite 
or qualification for voting. 

Section 2022, which authorizes the United States marshal and his deputies to 
keep the peace and preserve order at the Federal elections. 

Section 2024, which expressly authorizes the United States marshal and his 
deputies to summon a posse comitatus whenever they or any of them are forcibly 
resisted in the execution of their duties under the law, or are prevented from 
executing such duties by violence. 

Section 5522, which provides for the punishment of the crime of interfering 
with the supervisors of elections and deputy marshals in the discharge of their 
duties at the elections of Representatives in Congress. 

These are some of the laws on this subject which it is the duty of the Executive 
Department of the Government to enforce. The intent and effect of the sixth 
section of this bill is to prohibit all the civil officers of the United States, under 
penalty of fine and imprisonment, from employing any adequate civil force for 
this purpose at the place where their enforcement is most necessary, namely, at 
the places where the Congressional elections are held. Among the most valuable 
enactments to which I have referred are those which protect the supervisors of 
Federal elections in the discharge of their duties at the polls. If the proposed 
legislation should become the law there will be no power vested in any officer of 
the Government to protect from violence the officers of the United States engaged 
in the discharge of their duties. Their rights and duties under the law will remain, 
but the National Government will be powerless to enforce its own statutes. The 
States may employ both military and civil power to keep the peace, and to enforce 
the laws at State elections. It is now proposed to deny to the United States even 
the necessary civil authority to protect the national elections. No sufficient reason 
has been given for this discrimination in favor of the State and against the 
national authority. If well-founded objections exist against the present national 
election laws all good citizens should unite in their amendment. The laws pro- 
viding the safeguards of the elections should be impartial, just and efficient. 
They should, if possible, be so non-partisan and fair in their operation that the 
minority — the party out of power — will have no just grounds to complain. The 
present laws have, in practice, unquestionably conduced to the prevention of 
fraud and violence at the elections. In several of the States members of different 
political parties have applied for the safeguards which they furnish. It is the 
right and duty of the National Government to enact and enforce laws which will 
secure free and fair Congressional elections. The laws now in force should not be 
repealed, except in connection with the enactment of measures which will better 
accomplish that important end. Believing that section six of th^ bill before me 
will weaken, if it does not altogether take away, the power of the National Gov- 
ernment to protect the Federal elections by the civil authorities, I am forced to the 
conclusion that it ought not to receive my approval. 

This section is, however, not presented to me as a separate and independent 
measure, but is, as has been stated, attached to the bill making the usual annual 
appropriations for the support of the Army. It makes a vital change in the 
election laws of the country, which is in no way connected with the use of the 
Army. It prohibits, under heavy penalties, any person engaged in the civil ser- 
vice of the United States from having any force at the place of any election pre- 



27 

pared to preserve order, to make arrests, to keep the peace, or in any manner to 
enforce the laws. This is altogether foreign to the purpose of an Army appro- 
priation bill. The practice of tacking to appropriation bills measures not perti- 
nent to such bills did not prevail until more than forty years after the adoption of 
the Constitution. It has become a common practice. All parties when in power 
have adopted it. Many abuses and great waste of public money have in this way 
crept into appropriation bills. The public opinion of the country is against it. 
The States which have recently adopted constitutions have generally provided a 
remedy for the evil by enacting that no law shall contain more than one subject, 
which shall be plainly expressed in its title. The constitutions of more than half 
of the States contain substantially this provision. The public welfare will be 
promoted in many ways by a return to the early practice of the Government, and 
to the true principle of legislation, which requires that every measure shall stand 
or fall according to its own merits. If it were understood that to attach to an 
appropriation bill a measure irrelevant to the general object of the bill would 
imperil and probably prevent its final passage and approval a valuable reform in 
the parliamentary practice of Congress would be accomplished. The best justifi- 
cation that has been offered for attaching irrelevant riders to appropriation bills 
is that it is done for convenience sake, to facilitate the passage of measures which 
are deemed expedient by all the branches of Government which participate in 
legislation. It cannot be claimed that there is any such reason for attaching this 
amendment of the election laws to the Army appropriation bill. The history of 
the measure contradicts this assumption. A majority of the House of Representa- 
tives in the last Congress was in favor of section six of this bill. It was known 
that a majority of the Senate was opposed to it, and that as a separate measure it 
could not be adopted. It was attached to the Army appropriation bill to compel 
the Senate to assent to it. It was plainly announced to the Senate that the Army 
appropriation bill would not be allowed to pass unless the proposed amendments 
of the election laws were adopted with it. The Senate refused to assent to the 
bill on account of this irrelevant section. Congress thereupon adjourned without 
passing an appropriation bill for the Army, and the present extra session of the 
Forty -sixth Congress became necessary to furnish the means to carry on the Gov- 
ernment. 

The ground upon which the action of the House of Representatives is defended 
has been distinctly stated by many of its advocates. A week before the close of 
the last session of Congress the doctrine in question was stated by one of its 
ablest defenders, as follows 

It is our duty to repeal these laws. It is not worth while to attempt the repeal 
except upon an appropriation bill. The Republican Senate would not agree to, nor 
the Republican President sign, a bill for such repeal. Whatever objection to leg- 
islation upon appropriation bills may be made in ordinary cases does not apply 
where free elections and the liberty of the citizens are concerned. * * * "We 
have the power to vote money ; let us annex conditions to it, and insist upon the 
redress of grievances. 

By another distinguished member of the House it was said : 

The right of the Representatives of the people to withhold supplies is as old as 
English liberty. History records numerous instances where the Commons, feeling 
that the people were oppressed by laws that the Lords would not consent to repeal 



28 

by the ordinary methods of legislation, obtained redress at last by refusing appro- 
priations unless accompanied by relief measures. 

That a question of the gravest magnitude, and new in this country, was raised 
by this course of proceeding, was fully recognized also by its defenders in the 
Senate. It was said by a distinguished Senator : 

Perhaps no greater question, in the form we are brought to consider it, was 
ever considered by the American Congress in time of peace ; for it involves, not 
merely the merits or demerits of the laws which the House bill proposes to repeal, 
but involves the rights, the privileges, the powers, the duties of the two branches 
of Congress, and of the President of the United States. It is a vast question ; it 
is a question whose importance can scarcely be estimated; it is a question that 
never yet has been brought so sharply before the American Congress and the 
American people as it may be now. It is a question which, sooner or later, must 
be decided, and the decision must determine what are the powers of the House of 
Eepresentatives under the Constitution, and what is the duty of that House in 
the view of the framers of that Constitution according to its letter and its spirit. 

Mr. President, I should approach this question, if I were in the best possible 
condition to speak and to argue it, with very grave diffidence, and certainly with 
the utmost anxiety, for no one can think of it as long and as carefully as I have 
thought of it without seeing that we are at the beginning, perhaps, of a struggle 
that may last as long in this country as a similar struggle lasted in what we are 
accustomed to call the mother land. There the struggle lasted for two centuries 
before it was ultimately decided. It is not likely to last so long here, but it may 
last until every man in this Chamber is in his grave. It is the question whether 
or no the House of Representatives has a right to say, ' ~\Ye will grant supplies 
only upon condition that grievances are redressed. We are the representatives 
of the tax-payers of the republic ; we, the House of Representatives, alone have 
the right to originate money bills ; we, the House of Representatives, have alone 
the right to originate bills which grant the money of the people ; the Senate rep- 
resents States; we represent the tax-payers or the republic ; we, therefore, by the 
very terms of the Constitution, are charged with the duty of originating the bills 
which grant the money of the people. We claim the right, which the House of 
Commons in England established after two centuries of contest, to say that we 
will not grant the money of the people unless there is a redress of grievances. 

Upon the assembling of this Congress, in pursuance of a call for an extra ses- 
sion, which was made necessary by the failure of the Forty -fifth Congress to 
make the needful appropriations for the support of the Government, the question 
was presented whether the attempt made in the last Congress to engraft, by con- 
struction, a new principle upon the Constitution should be persisted in or not. 
This Congress has ample opportunity and time to pass the appropriation bills, 
and also to enact any political measures which may be determined upon in sepa- 
rate bills by the usual and orderly methods of proceeding. But the majority of 
both Houses have deemed it wise to adhere to the principles asserted and main- 
tained in the last Congress by the majority of the House of Representatives. 
That principle is that the House of Representatives has the sole fight to origin- 
ate bills for raising revenue, and therefore has the right to withhold appropria- 
tions upon which the existence of the Government may depend, unless the Senate 
and the President shall give their assent to any legislation w T hich the House may 
see fit to attach to appropriation bills. To establish this principle is to make a 
radical, dangerous, and unconstitutional change in the character]of our institutions. 
The various departments of the Government, and the Army and the J^avy, are 
established by the Constitution, or by laws passed in pursuance thereof. Their 
duties are clearly denned, and their support is carefully provided for by law. The 



29 

money required for this purpose has been collected from the people, and is now in 
the Treasury, ready to be paid out as soon as the appropriation bills are passed. 
Whether appropriations are made or not, the collection of the taxes will go on. 
The public money will accumulate in the Treasury. It was not the intention of 
the framers of the Constitution that any single branch of the Government should 
have the power to dictate conditions upon which this treasure should be applied 
to the purpose for which it was collected. Any such intention, if it had been en- 
tertained, would have been plainly expressed in the Constitution. 

That a majority of the Senate now concurs in the claim of the House adds to the 
gravity of the situation, but does not alter the question at issue. The new doc- 
trine, if maintained, will result in a consolidation of unchecked and despotic 
power in the House of Representatives. A bare majority of the House will be- 
come the Government. The Executive will no longer be what the framers of the 
Constitution intended, an equal and independent branch of the Government. It 
is clearly the Constitutional duty of the President to exercise his discretion and 
judgment upon all bills presented to him without constraint or duress from any 
other branch of the Government. To say that a majority of either or both of the 
Houses of Congress may insist upon the approval of a bill under the penalty of 
stopping all of the operations of the Government for want of the necessary sup- 
plies, is to deny to the Executive that share of the legislative power which is 
plainly conferred by the second section of the seventh article of the Constitution. 
It strikes from the Constitution the qualified negative of the President. It is said 
that this should be done because it is the peculiar function of the House of Rep- 
resentatives to represent the will of the people. But no single branch or depart- 
ment of the Government has exclusive authority to speak for the American peo- 
ple. The most authentic and solemn expression of their will is contained in the 
Constitution of the United States. By that Constitution they have ordained and 
established a Government whose powers are distributed among co-ordinate 
branches, which, as far as possible, consistently with a harmonious co-operation, 
are absolutely independent of each other. The people of this country are unwilling 
to see the supremacy of the Constitution replaced by the omnipotence of any one 
department of the Government. 

The enactment of this bill into a law will establish a precedent which will tend 
to destroy the equal independence of the several branches of the Government. 
Its principle places not merely the Senate and the Executive, but the Judiciary 
also, under the coercive dictation of the House. The House alone will be the 
judge of what constitutes a grievance, and also of the means and measures of 
redress. An act of Congress to protect elections is now the grievance complained 
of. But the House may, on the same principle, determine that any other act of 
Congress, a treaty made by the President with the advice and consent of the Sen- 
ate, a nomination or appointment to office, or that a decision or opinion of the 
Supreme Court is a grievance, and that the measure of redress is to withhold the 
appropriations required for the support of the offending branch of the Govern- 
ment. 

Believing that this bill is a dangerous violation of the spirit and meaning of the 
Constitution, I am compelled to return it to the House, in which it originated, with- 
out my approval. The qualified negative with which the Constitution invests the 
President is a trust that involves a duty which he cannot decline to perform. 



30 

With a firm and conscientious purpose to do what I can to preserve, unimpaired, 
the constitutional powers and equal independence, not merely of the Executive, 
but of every branch of the Government, which will be imperiled by the adoption 
of the principle of this bill, I desire earnestly to urge upon the House of Repre- 
sentatives a return to the wise and wholesome usage of the earlier days of the 
Republic, which excluded from appropriation bills all irrelevant legislation. By 
this course you will inaugurate an important reform in the method of Congres- 
sional legislation ; your action will be in harmony with the fundamental princi- 
j)les of the Constitution and the patriotic sentiment of nationality which is their 
firm support ; and you will restore to the country that feeling of confidence and 
security and the repose which are so essential to the prosperity of all of our fel- 
low citizens. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
Executive Mansion, April 29, 1879." 

Now here is another, when the dying kick was given by the 
Kebel Brigadiers at the election laws. The Marshals are to be 
paid. Oh, yes ; bnt not for any services rendered in preserving the 
sacredness of the ballot-box and the purity of elections. 

" No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
With good opinion of the law." 

" Message from the President of the United States, Assigning Objections to 
the Approval of the Bill of the House (H. R. 2382) Making Appropria. 
tion to Pay Fees of United States Marshals and their General 
Deputies. 

June 30, 1879.— Laid on the table and ordered to be printed. 
To the House of Representatives : 

I return to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, the bill en- 
titled ' An act making appropriations to pay fees of United States marshals and 
their general deputies,' with the following objections to its becoming a law: 

The bill appropriates the sum of $600,000 for the payment, during the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1880, of United States marshals and their general deputies. 
The offices thus provided for are essential to the faithful execution of the laws. 
They were created and their powers and duties defined by Congress at its first 
session after the adoption of the Constitution in the judiciary act, w T hich was ap- 
proved September 24, 1789. Their general duties, as defined in the act which 
originally established them, were substantially the same as those prescribed in the 
statutes now in force. 

The principal provision on the subject in the Revised Statutes is as follows: 

Sec 787. It shall be the duty of the marshal of each district to attend the dis- 
trict and circuit courts, when sitting therein, and to execute throughout the dis- 
trict all lawtul precepts directed to him, and issued under the authority of the 
United States ; and he shall have power to command all necessary assistance in 
the execution of his duty. 

The original act was amended February 28, 1795, and the amendment is now 
found in the Revised Statutes in the following form : 

Sec. 788. The marshals and their deputies shall have in each State the same 
powers in executing the laws of the United States, as the sheriffs and theii 
deputies in such State may have by law in executing the laws thereof. 



31 

By subsequent statutes, additional duties have been from time to time imposed 
upon the marshals aDd their deputies, the due and regular performance of which 
are required for the efficiency of almost every branch of the'public service. "With- 
out these officers there would be no means of executing the warrants, decrees, or 
other process of the courts, and the judicial system of the country would be fatally 
defective. The criminal jurisdiction of the courts of the United States is very 
extensive. The crimes committed within the maritime jurisdiction of the United 
States are all cognizable only in the courts of the United States. Crimes against 
public justice ; crimes against the operations of the Government, such as forging 
or counterfeiting the money or securities of the United States ; crimes against the 
postal laws; offenses against the elective franchise, against the civil rights of 
citizens, against the existence of the Government ; crimes against the internal 
revenue laws, the customs laws, the neutrality laws ; crimes against laws for the 
protection of Indians, and of the public lands — all of these crimes, and many 
others, can be punished only under United States laws — laws which, taken to- 
gether, constitute a body of jurisprudence, which is vital to the welfare of the 
whole country, and which can be enforced only by means of the marshals and 
deputy marshals of the United States. In the District of Columbia all of the pro- 
cess of the courts is executed by the officers in question. In short, the execution of 
the criminal laws of the United States, the service of all civil process in cases in which 
the United States is a party, and the execution of the revenue laws, the neutrality 
laws, and many other laws of large importance, depend on the maintenance of the 
marshals and their deputies. They are in effect the only police of the United States 
Government. Officers with corresponding powers and duties are found in every 
State of the Union, and in every country which has a jurisprudence which is 
worthy of the name. To deprive the National Government of these officers would 
be as disastrous to society as to abolish the sheriffs, constables, and police officers 
in the several States. It -would be a denial to the United States of the right to 
execute its laws — a denial of all authority which requires the use of civil force. 
The law entitles these officers to be paid. The funds needed for the purpose have 
been collected from the people, and are now in the Treasury. ISo objection is 
therefore made to that part of the bill before me, which appropriates money for 
the support of the marshals and deputy marshals of the United States. 

The bill contains, however, other provisions wdiich are identical in tenor and 
effect with the second section of the bill entitled ' An act making appropriations 
for certain judicial expenses,' which, on the 23d of the present month, was re- 
turned to the House of Representatives- with my objections to its approval. The 
provisions referred to are as follows : 

Sec. 2. That the sums appropriated in this act for the persons and public 
service embraced in its provisions are in full for such persons and public service 
for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and no de- 
partment or officers of the Government shall, during said fiscal year, make any 
contract or incur any liability for the future payment of money under any of the 
provisions of title twenty-six mentioned in section one of this act, until an appro- 
priation sufficient to meet such contract or pay such liability shall have first been 
made by law. 

Upon a reconsideration in the House of Representatives of the bill which con- 
tained these provisions, it lacked a constitutional majority, and therefore failed to 
become a law. In order to secure its enactment, the same measure is again pre- 



32 

sented for my approval, coupled in the bill before me with appropriations for the 
support of marshals and their deputies during the next fiscal year. The object, 
manifestly, is to place before the Executive this alternative : Either to allow 
necessary functions of the public service to be crippled or suspended for want of 
the appropriations required to keep them in operation, or to approve legislation 
which in official communications to Congress he has declared would be a violation 
of his constitutional duty. Thus in this bill the principle is clearly embodied 
that, by virtue of the provisions of the Constitution which requires that ' all bills 
for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives,' a bare ma- 
jority of the House of Representatives has the right to withhold appropriations 
for the support of the Government unless the Executive consents to approve any 
legislation which may be attached to appropriation bills. I respectfully refer to 
the communications on this subject which I have sent to Congress during its 
present session for a statement of the grounds of my conclusions, and desire here 
merely to repeat that, in my judgment, to establish the principle of this bill is to 
mate a radical, dangerous, and unconstitutional change in the character of our in- 
stitutions. 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
Executive Mansion, June 30, 1879." 

Comments would seem to be unnecessary upon these fraudulent 
and revolutionary purposes of the Democratic majority in Con- 
gress. Certainly none that I could make would be so apt and 
pertinent as these few words from Senator Eoscoe Conkling, the 
real leader of the Kepublican Party in the United States. A man 
whom it gratifies me to feel assured the Eepublicans of the West 
now know as they never knew him before. His political, and I 
might add his personal, friends, are numbered to-day by millions 
in the Great Northwest, the seat of American Empire. 

I give only an extract from Mr. Conkling's remarks in the 
Senate, on the 19th of June, 1879, on the Army Bill: 

" Now, sir, one other word and I have done. "What is this Army bill ? It is a 
juggle, in my opinion a contemptible juggle and subterfuge. It is an attempt, by 
indirection, by stealth, by trick, by an act which is to operate as a fraud, to do 
that of which we had high-sounding proclamation at the end of the last session. 
It is to compel the Executive and to compel the minority to pay the democratic 
party of this country a price as the condition on which they will make appropria- 
tions and allow the Government to live. That is what it is. 

On what did we in the minority stand at the beginning of this session ? On two 
ideas and only two that I could ever comprehend. First, that no political party 
should be allowed to take the Government by the throat and say to it ' surrender, 
conditions and terms, to us, or the Government shall not exist ;' and second, we 
stood upon the idea that the laws which our fathers made, which their children 
had preserved, which were to be found in the statute books, were just and whole- 
some laws, and that they should not be cloven down by any majority, and especi- 
ally by such a majority coming into power by any such means as mark the history 
of majorities in the two Houses of Congress in the year 1879. 

"We went to war upon those two issues. We took the responsibility before the 



33 

country of confronting the democratic party on both of them. And now what ? 
After twelve weeks of agitation, of anxiety, of disturbance in the country, after 
twelve weeks during which bill after bill originated in the democratic caucus has 
struck the rock of the Constitution and gone down where nothing but the hand 
of the resurrection will reach it, when the time has come that this majority dare 
not — dare not adjourn this session leaving the Government or the Army to lan- 
guish or to starve, now when the whole battle has been fought, it is proposed, by 
trick, by artifice, by a juggle of words, to accomplish that which we have said 
and the nation has said these members and Senators, majority though they 
be, shall not accomplish. 

They have put in one section of this bill that none of the money appropriated 
shall be used to maintain any part of the Army employed to keep the peace at the 
polls. I do not stop to talk about what is a ' police.' It is what astronomers 
would call point without magnitude. There is nothing in it but a cheat. The 
operative words are ' to keep the peace at the polls.' They have said no part of 
the money shall be used for that, and they have said in another bill what a statute 
that speaks to-day has said already, namely, that without the money appropriated, 
no contract shall be made, no obligation shall be incurred by which it can be 
done. Taking the two things together, the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Voorhees] 
said well to-day ; he said well yesterday when he chose the word ' negation ' to 
describe what his associates had done. The Senator from Indiana said yesterday, 
having been unable to accomplish the repeal of these laws, this bill was to accom- 
plish their negation. That word is well chosen. ' Negation ' means to say no, to 
deny, to paralyze, and it is for that that this sixth section was contrived. It was 
for that that men elsewhere were told and persuaded to believe that it was harm- 
less for two reasons : first, because it said that troops should not be employed as 
a police, when for one hundred years in England, and always here, every lawyer 
has known and admitted that, except as a police, troops could not be used to 
enforce the laws at all — never until you get martial law as in Kentucky ; and a 
great definer of words has said that martial law is the will of the commander. 
Inter arma silent leges. With martial law troops as troops may act, an army as an 
army ; but, the civil law speaking, troops are to act in the enforcement of laws as 
an auxiliary to the police ; and were the hour earlier, I would read repeated 
decisions from the highest authorities both in England and in this country, to 
show that the quality of the act, be the men soldiers or citizens, is identical, and the 
rights, the immunities, the liabilities are exactly the same in a given case, whether 
the posse be of the yeomanry and the citizen or the militia or the regular soldiers 
of the realm. But for that reason it was said that this was harmless, and for 
another, and what was that ? Why there are no national elections this }'ear, and 
no congressional elections known save in California, and one in the Westchester 
district in New York. True, true. 

Mr. President, it has been said that the devil is subtle but weaves a coarse web, 
and this web, when you come to look at it, is course enough to be plainly dis- 
cernible. 

What is the purpose of these democrats? To induce as many republicans as 
possible in the House to vote for this bill with the sixth section ; if possible to 
get republican votes for it here ; but whether so or not, if possible to secure the 
executive signature. Then what? Sext December the same majority is to be 



34 

here, the same majority in the House, the same occupant of the executive chair; 
and when the same words for the fiscal year ending June 30. 1881, have been incor- 
porated in the Army appropriation bill, the President who signs it this year must 
sign it next ; and thus for the year when all the elections in all the States 
for members of Congress and the Presidential election, too, are to take place, the 
polls are to be naked to the State troops, the rifle clubs, the white-leaugers, the 
night-riders, and the demons who invest the Southern States, and they are to be 
exposed to all the thugs, the ruffians, and the mobs to be found in all the cities of 
the land. 

That is this programme. That is what this majority means. That is what we 
mean to resist ; that is what we mean to debate ; and because we sought the pri- 
vilege of uncovering this wrong, uncovering this act which in effect is to be a 
fraud if it succeeds, because we would debate it and expose it, we have been 
driven to that which Senators have been pleased to call filibustering. Mr. 
President, call it what you will, for one I claim my part of the responsibilty ; for 
one I will take it as often upon a measure only half as iniquitous and monstrous 
as this is, I will take it as often as even half such a measure comes here and an 
attempt is made either by stealth to manage it through or by the brute force of 
numbers to gag it through the Senate. 

So, Mr. President, I think with only these few moments for reflection, that I do 
not agree with the Senator from Delaware. I am quite content the Record should 
go out. I would be glad to have to-morrow's Record go containing what the 
Senator from Wisconsin, if he speaks like the lawyer he is, will say, what a 
pitiful attempt by introducing the word ' police ' to cheat and defraud the Ameri- 
can people. I will vote for extra numbers of to-day's Record and to-morrow's 
Pecord. 

So much, Mr President, without having had the slightest purpose to do so or to 
say anything, I have been moved to say by the coaxing invitation of the Senator 
from Delaware. 

Mr. Lamar — Mr. President, I desire to make one statement personal to myself 
in reference to this matter. I do not intend to go into the discussion of the ques- 
tion concerning this measure that the Senator from New York has been discussing. 
I learn for the first time that an impression exists on the mind of any Senator on 
this floor that further time was to be extended for the discussion of the bill which 
the Senator from Virginia reported, based upon any proceedings or upon any oc- 
currence connected with the measure that I had the honor of reporting this 
morning and asked unanimous consent to consider and have passed. I am not 
aware of anything that occurred which would produce such an impression. If I 
had, although I would not have been instrumental consciously in producing such 
an impression, I should have felt myself bound by it and would have made the 
motion myself for an adjournment, in order to give the Senator from Wisconsin an 
opportunity to discuss this bill. 

J repeat, sir, that if I had imagined that any Senator had any such expectation 
Trom anything that occurred in the incidents of that proceeding, it would have 
been my pleasure to have made that motion. In fact, sir, I was not here. I was 
not aware of the fact that the Senator from Wisconsin had risen for the purpose of 
addressing the Senate. I came in at a later stage of these proceedings. 

With reference to the charge of bad faith that the Senator from New York has 



35 

intimated toward those of us who have been engaged in opposing these motions 
to adjourn, I have only to say that if I am not superior to such attacks from such a 
source, I have lived in vain. It is not my habit to indulge in personalities; but I 
desire to say here to the Senator that in intimating anything inconsistent, as he 
has done, with perfect good faith, I pronounce his statement a falsehood, which I 
repel with all the unmitigated contempt that I feel for the author of it. 

Mr. Conkling — Mr. President, I was diverted during the commencement of a re- 
mark the culmination of which I heard from the member from Mississippi. If I 
understood him aright' he intended to impute, and did in plain and unparliamen- 
tary language impute to me an intentional misstatement. The Senator does not 
disclaim that. 

Mr. Lamar — I will state what I intended, so that there may be no mistake 

The Presiding Officer — Does the Senator from New York yield ? 

Mr. Lamar — All that I 

The Presiding Officer — Does the Senator from New York yield to the Senator 
from Mississippi ? 

Mr. Lamar — He appealed to me to know, and I will give 

The Presiding Officer — The Senator from New York has the floor. Does he 
yield to the Senator from Mississippi ? 

Mr. Lamar — But the Senator declines to yield to me to know 

The Presiding Officer — The Senator from New York has the floor. Does he 
yield to the Senator from Mississippi ? 

Mr. Conkling — And I am willing to respond to the Chair. I shall respond to 
the Chair in due time. Whether I am willing to respond to the member from 
Mississippi depends entirely upon what that member intends to say, and what he 
did say. For the time being, I do not choose to hold any communication with 
him. The Chair understands me now ; I will proceed. 

I understand the Senator from Mississippi to state in plain and unparliamentary 
language that the statement of mine to which he referred was a falsehood, if I 
caught his word aright. Mr, President this not being the place to measure with 
any man the capacity to violate decency, to violate the rules of the Senate, or to 
commit any of the improprieties of life, I have only to say that if the Senator, — 
the member from Mississiopi, did impute or intended to impute to me a falsehood, 
nothing except the fact that this is the Senate would prevent my denouncing him 
as a blackguard and a coward. [Applause in the galleries.] 

The Presiding Officer — There shall be no cheering in the galleries. If there 
should be any more, the Chair will order the galleries to be cleared. The Senator 
from New York will proceed. 

Mr. Conkling — Let me be more specific, Mr. President. Should the member 
from Mississippi, except in the presence of the Senate, charge me, by intimation 
or otherwise, with falsehood, I would denounce him as a blackguard, as a coward 
and a liar ; and understanding what he said as I have, the rules and the proprie- 
ties of the Senate are the only restraint upon me. 

I do not think I need to say anything else Mr. President. 

Mr. Lamar — Mr. President, I have only to say that the Senator from New York 
understood me correctly. I did mean to say just precisely the words, and all that 
they imported. I beg pardon of the Senate for the unparliamentary language. It 
was very harsh ; it was very severe ; it was such as no good man would deserve 
and no brave man would wear. [Applause on the floor and in the galleries.]" 



PART II 



Specie Payment. — Resumption. — The position of the Demo- 
cratic and Republican Parties on the Question. 

I cannot so well present the policy and practice of the Repub- 
lican party on this, one of the questions of first importance to the 
whole country, to the Southern man and the Northern man, to 
the laborer and the capitalist, to the man of commerce, and the 
man of trade, in any other way than by giving extracts from the 
great speech of Secretary Sherman, delivered at Portland, Maine, 
on the 23d of July, 1879. 

I quote from the New York Times of the 24th of that month, 
where the speech will be found in full : 

THE RESUMPTION ACT. 
" In January, 1875, and during the second session of Congress — 18 months 
after the panic — the measure known as the Resumption Act was adopted by a 
majority of both branches and approved by the President. This was a Republican 
measure, for, though many Democrats favored resumption, yet party discipline, 
and the hope of party advantage, induced everyone of them to vote against the 
Resumption Act. This measure was a very simple one, containing but two pro- 
positions — one was that silver coin should be gradually issued for the redemption 
of fractional currency, and the other was that on Jan. 1, 1879, the national Trea- 
sury should redeem, in coin, any United States notes that were presented. This 
act was not to take effect, in its material provision, until four years from the date 
of its passage. Steps were taken by Secretuary Bristow, and your distinguished 
townsman, Secretary Morrill, for the gradual replacement of fractional currency 
by silver coin, but until the spring of 1877 no material preparation was, or could 
well have been, made for the redemption of United States notes, which continued 
to be depreciated, being worth only 89 to 94 cent in coin. A wide-spread feeling 
prevailed that resumption was impossible, that it would not bring better times, 
and the country continued to suffer the tortures of the panic of 1873. During the 
whole of 1876 and 1877 the Resumption Act was made the subject of denunciation. 
The absurd notion was put forward that it was the cause of the hard times, 
though no material action had been taken under it, and the hard times came 18 
months before the Resumption Act passed. All sorts of prophecies were made of 
its failure. "We were told that the Resumption Act was a sham ; that it was a 
hindrance to resumption; that the attempt to accumulate coin would put up its 
price ; that it would be worth $50,000 to be on the right of the line on the day of 
resumption ; that resumption was impossible ; that it would prostrate industry ; 
that it would stop the sale of bonds ; that it would raise the rate of interest for 
the benefit of the bondholders, Shylocks, and capitalists. The Democratic party, 
in its platform adopted in St. Louis in 1876, while pretending to be for resump- 
tion, denounced the Republican party because it had made no preparation for it, 

(36) 



37 

but, instead, had obstructed it by wasting our resources and exhausting all sur- 
plus income ; and, because, while annually professing to intend a speedy return to 
specie payments, it had annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto. It denounced 
the Resumption Act of 1875 a.s such a hindrance, and demanded its repeal. Mr. 
Ewing, of Ohio, and Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, with others, made a minority re- 
port, in which they declared that the law for the resumption of specie payments 
on the 1st of January, 1879, having been enacted by the Republican party without 
deliberation in Congress or discussion before the people, and being so inadequate 
to secure its object, was highly injurious to the business of the country, and ought 
to be forthwith repealed. Mr. Tilden, in his letter of acceptance, indorsed this 
doctrine, and, at the same time, declared himself for a speedy return to specie 
payments, saying: — 'The Government ought not to speculate on its own dishonor 
in order to save interest on its broken promises, which it still compels private 
dealers to accept at a fictitious par.' I might quote for days the warnings and 
evil prophecies of our Democratic and Greenback friends, but they have been so 
recently made that it is scarcely necessary. On the other hand, the supporters of 
this measure insisted that resumption was not only possible but easy; that the 
accumulation of coin would lower its price, improve the public credit, increase 
the sale of 4 per cent, bonds ; and that when the fund should be sufficient to in- 
spire confidence in the ability to resume, resumption would be a tranquil and easy 
passage, the sure forerunner of hopeful prosperity. They also believe that it 
would lessen the burden of the public debt, and lower the rate of interest not 
only to the public but to private individuals. 

RESUMPTION SUCCEEDS. 

Let us now examine which of these opposing opinions has been proved to be 
true by the test of experience. The success of resumption depended entirely upon 
the ability of the United States, by the time fixed, to accumulate in the Treasury 
an amount of coin sufficient to meet any demands likely to be made upon it. This 
coin could only be obtained by surplus revenue, or by the sale of United States 
bonds, full authority for which was given by the Resumption Jfct. In April 
1877, it was announced by the Administration that from the 1st of May the Trea- 
sury Department would accumulate coin at the rate of $5,000,000 a month, and, 
accordingly, that sum was set aside from the sale of 4^- per cent, bonds, up to the 
1st of July. The very announcement of the purpose to resume, with a definite 
plan of resumption, at once had a reviving effect upon the public credit, increas- 
ing the sale of 4^- per cent, bonds. This induced the Treasury Department, on 
the 23d of May, 1877, to withdraw the 4^- per cent, bonds, and on the 9th of June, 
1877, to place the 4 per cents, upon the market, to be sold at par in coin, both 
for refunding and resumption purposes. This was a critical experiment, the expe- 
diency of which was gravely doubted by many friends of resumption, but it 
proved a perfect success. This course was pursued until November, the price of 
•coin constantly declining and confidence steadily improving, when Congress met, 
and a bill speedily passed the House of Representatives to repeal the Resumption 
Act. This and other proposed measures affected seriously the public credit, and 
stopped the sale of bonds as with a clamp. An examination of financial problems 
by the committees of both houses, and the debates in Congress, caused the Senate 
io refuse to pass the bill for the repeal of the Resumption Act, and finally pre- 



38 

vented the passage of any bill that would cripple that act, and left the Executive- 
authority to pursue its duty as prescribed therein. On April 11, 1878, the de- 
partment was again able to resume its policy of purchasing coin by the sale of 4-£ 
per cent, bonds, and shortly afterward to commence the sale of 4 per cents, for 
refunding purposes, and this policy was steadily pursued to the end. During the 
process coin constantly declined, and the sale of 4 per cent, bonds steadily in- 
creased. In 1878 we sold $50,000,000 4-J per cent, bonds at a premium of 1^ per 
cent., and $128,685,450 4 per cent, bonds at par. Ninety million dollars of the 
proceeds of bonds sold in 1877 and 1878 were held in coin as a part of the re- 
sumption fund, and the balance was applied to the payment of the 6 per cent. 5-20 
bonds. At the end of the year 1878, and before Congress had convened, we had 
thus accumulated, including surplus revenue, a coin reserve of $138,000,000. Re- 
sumption had practically come one month before the day fixed by law, as quietly 
and tranquilly as a vessel would float from the river into the ocean. So complete 
was the success of resumption that all the notes presented for redemption since 
the 1st of January, and prior to the 1st of July, amount to $7,976,698, while gold 
coin has been freely deposited in the Treasury in exchange for United States- 
notes. The total amount of gold coin and bullion in the Treasury on the 2d day 
of January, 1879, was $135,382,639 42. On the first day of this month the 
amount of such coin and bullion was $135,436,474 62, and the amount of silver 
dollars has increased from $16,697,338 in January, to $28,147,351 Julvl. No- 
assistance whatever was extended by Congress in aid of resumption. On the con- 
trary, it increased the minimum of the United States notes upon which resump- 
tion was to be maintained from $300,000,000 to $346,681,016. It recently re- 
quired the redemption of fractional coin as well as United States notes. By pend- 
ing measures of the most dangerous character, and by continual agitation, it 
greatly disturbed the public credit, and made the task of the department much 
more difficult and its means much less. It reduced the revenue from taxes on 
tobacco to the extent of $8,000,000 or $9,000,000 annually. It largely increased 
the aggregate of appropriations. While Congress reduced the revenues and 
increased appropriations, it neither levied new taxes nor gave authority to borrow 
money to meet these extraordinary demands, but used the sinking fund, which 
was specifically set aside by law for the reduction of the public debt, thus arrest- 
ing the established policy of the Republican party of yearly reducing the 
debt." 

After showing in the clearest manner the profits of resumption,, 
by the refunding of our 6 and 5 per cent, bonds into 4 per cent., 
he says, with just pride : 

" I can say, without fear of contradiction, that no nation ever negotiated its 
pans at a less cost or on as favorable terms. The sales of the famous 3 per cent., 
consols of England, when made, were on far less advantageous terms than the 
United States was able to secure after accomplishing resumption." 

And proceeds thus as to its effect on trade and commerce : 
"The resumption of specie payments has had the same beneficial effect upo» 
the business of private citizens. The reduction of interest on the public debt has 
made it possible to reduce the rate on all debts, whether State, corporation, or 



39 

private. Private debts are now being rapidly reduced from 10 to 8, and even to 6 
per cent. The State of New York has, by law, reduced the rate of interest in that 
State from V to 6 per cent. The City of Providence sold 44; per cent, bonds at 
above par. The State of Pennsylvania sold $2, 000,000 4 per cent, bonds at 
above par. The City of New York sold 5 per cent, bridge bonds at 105. 76. Five 
million dollars of Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company 7 per cent, bonds 
were subscribed in two hours — the first time for years that money has been 
pledged for building a railroad. All securities have advanced since January 1, at 
the average rate of 10 percent. Mortgages at from 8 to 10 per cent, are daily 
being reduced to from 6 to 8 per cent. Capital is again seeking investment in any 
safe securities that offer. With the first decided preparation for resumption there 
came slowly a revival of business ; with the success of resumption, that revival is 
marked in nearly every branch of industry. The increase of our exports of domes- 
tic merchandise, since the period of the panic, is without example in our history. 
In the year ending June 30, 1873, the amount of our exports was $5C5,033 439 in 
the year euding June 1, 1879, the amount of our exports was $699,618,933. In the 
five years preceding the panic our exports were $2,013,702,648, and during the past 
five years they were $2,999,197,652. The net imports of merchandise decreased 
from $624,687,727 during the year 1873, to $422,895,034 in 1878, or 32 per cent. ; 
whereas the value of our exports of merchandise, representing mainly our agricul- 
tural and manufacturing products, increased from $505,033,439 in 1873, to $680,- 
709,268 in 1878, or 35 per cent. It may be stated generally that the internal 
commerce of the country shows a gradual increase of traffic since 1873 — the im- 
provement during the last year having been more rapid than during any preceding 
year since 1873. The tonnage of the great railroads from the East to the West, the 
most important highways of commerce in this country, shows an increase since 
1S73 of 37-i per cent. The production of wheat and corn, the two leading cereal 
products of the country, which constitute the principal part of our exports of 
breadstuffs, indicates during last year a large increase over the production of 1873. 
The production of corn in 1873 was 932,000,000 bushels ; in 1878, about 
1,360,000,000 bushels. Production of wheat in 1873, 281,000,000 bushels 
in 1878, about 425,000,000 bushels. The cotton crop of the United States 
during the year 1878, was larger than any previous crop in the history of 
the country. Our exports of cotton increased from 1,200,000,000 pounds in 
1873, to 1,608,000,000 pounds in 1878. The quantity of wool produced increased 
from 158,000,000 pounds in 1873, to 207,000,000 in 1878. The total amount, 
which went into consumption, including domestic production and imports, repre- 
senting the manufacture of woolen goods in the United States, increased from 
136,000,000 pounds in 1873, to 249,000,000 pounds in 1878. Even our shipping 
interests, engaged in foreign trade — the industry most depressed — show some 
signs of hopefulness. Ships and barks are the classes of sailing-vessels principally 
employed in foreign trade. The average number of vessels of these two classes 
built during each of the years 1847 to 1858 inclusive, was 248, but during the 
year 1871 the number was only 40 ; in 1872, only 15 ; and in 1873, only 28. Since 
that time, however, there has been a considerable improvement, the average 
number built during each of the last five years being a little more than 82. The 
total tonnage of American vessels engaged in foreign traffic, which as I have 
already stated, fell from 2,379,396 tons in 1860, to 1,378,533 tons in 1873, has 



40 

since that time [increased to 1,589,348 tons in 18*78. I am not foolish enough to 
attribute all these signs to the act of resumption. No doubt it is largely due to 
the habits of thrift, economy, and industry which necessarily followed the depres- 
sion of business, largely to the migration of people thrown out of employment who 
have found homes in the West, but mainly to the recuperative energies of a vigorous 
industrious, and active people. What I wish to prove is that resumption, the res- 
toration of our currency to the coin standard, contributed to these beneficial re- 
sults, and it belied all the false prophecies made as to its effect." 

After a most merciless but deserved exposure of the greenback 
fallacies, Mr. Sherman eloquently concludes with this brilliant 
resume of the record and aims of the Eepublican party: 

It is to support such dogmas, my Republican friends, that we are invited to 
desert the great party to which we belong. It may be that the Republican party 
has made in the last 20 years some mistakes. It may not always have come up 
to your aspirations. Sometimes power may have been abused. To err is human; 
but where it has erred it has always been on the side of liberty and justice. It 
led our country in the great struggle for union and nationality, which more than 
all else tended to make it great and powerful. It has always taken side with the 
poor and feeble. It emancipated a whole race, and has invested them with liberty 
and all the rights of citizenship. It never robbed the ballot-box. It has never 
deprived any class of people, for any cause, of the elective franchise. It main- 
tains the supremacy of the National Government on all national affairs, while ob- 
serving and protecting the rights of the States. It has tried to secure the equality 
of all citizens before the law. It opposes all distinctions among men, whether 
white or black, native or naturalized. It invites them all to partake of equal 
privileges, and secures them an equal chance in life. It has secured, for the first 
time in our history, the rights of a naturalized citizen to protection against claims 
of military duty to his native country. It prescribes no religious test. While it 
respects religion for its beneficial influence upon civil society, it recognizes the 
right of each individual to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science, without prejudice or interference. It supports free common schools as the 
basis of republican institutions. It has done more than any party that ever 
existed to provide lands for the landless. It devised and enacted the Homestead 
law, and has constantly extended this policy, so that all citizens, native and 
naturalized, may enjoy, without cost, limited portions of the public land. It pro- 
tects American labor. It is in favor of American industry. It seeks to diversify 
productions. It has steadily pursued, a3 an object of national importance, the de- 
velopment of our commerce on inland waters and on the high seas. It has pro- 
tected our flag on every sea ; not the stars and bars, not the flag of a State, but 
the Stars and Stripes of the Union. It seeks to establish in this Republic of ours 
a great, strong, free Government of free men. It would, with frankness and 
sincerity, without malice or hate, extend the right hand of fellowship and fraternity 
to those who lately were at war with us, aid them in making fruitful their waste 
places and in developing their immense resources, if only they would allow the 
poor and ignorant men among them the benefits conferred by the Constitution and 
the laws. No hand of oppression rests upon them. No bayonet points to them 
except in their political imaginings. We would gladly fraternize with them if 



41 

they would allow us, and have but one creed — the Constitution and laws of our 
country to be executed and enforced by our country, and for the equal benefit of 
all our countrymen. If they will not accept this, but will keep tip sectionalism, 
maintain the solid South upon the basis of the principles of the Confederate 
States, we must prepare to stand together as the loyal North, true to the Union, 
true to liberty, and faithful to every national obligation. I appeal to every man 
who ever, at any time, belonged to the Republican party, to every man who sup. 
ported his country in its time of danger, to every lover of liberty regulated by 
law, and every intelligent Democrat who can see with us the evil tendencies of 
the dogmas I have commented upon, to join us in reforming all that is evil, all the 
abuses of the past, and in developing the principles and policies which in 20 years 
have done so much to strengthen our Government, to consolidate our institutions, 
and to excite the respect and admiration of mankind." 

Notwithstanding the now palpable benefits resulting from re- 
sumption, so plain that the child who runs may not only read, but 
see and feel them, the bill itself, opposed by the Democratic party, 
from Ohio to Maine, and from New York to New Orleans, in 
every stage of its passage, still encounters the opposition of that 
party, and every impartial, just and honest man, no matter what 
his politics, must admit that whatever of general prosperity has 
resulted from this upright, and, as it has now turned out, wise 
measure, is fairly due to the honest and patriotic efforts of the Re- 
publican party. Even if these happy results of the measure had 
not been, as it is true they were not, foreseen, it was due to the 
credit and honor of the nation as a measure of justice that we 
should redeem our promises. Promises which brought us credit 
in the hour of our sorest trial, and enabled us to save the nation 
that is the hope of the world. " Justice," said Sir James Mcintosh, 
" is the first policy of nations, and any eminent departure from it 
lies under the imputation of being no policy at all." 

The Republican party in both branches of Congress, and notably 
in the House of Representatives, under the lead of General Garfield, 
recognizing this great axiom, have successfully resisted the unre- 
mitting efforts of the Democrats to repeal that act, and, thanks to 
their firmness, patriotism and self-denial, specie payment in the 
United States is now a fixed fact, and the credit of the Republic, at 
home and abroad, is equal to any and better than most countries 
in the world. 

I append here some extracts taken at random from the Record, 
but sufficient to show the bent and status of the parties on the 
question. 

This from the Congressional Record of the 23d of April, 1878 : 

"RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 

Mr. Voorhees. — Mr. President, on the l*7th of this month the Senator from 
Michigan (Mr. Ferry) reported back, from the Committee on Finance, House bill 
805, known as a bill for the repeal of the specie resumption act of January 14, 
1875, with an amendment striking out all after the enacting clause and inserting 
certain important provisions in lieu of the original measure as it came from the 



42 

House. I propose now to amend that amendment in certain particulars, and I 
ask that the amendments of which I give notice be read. 

The President pro tempore. — The Senator from Indiana gives notice that he 
will offer certain amendments, which will be read. 

The Chief Clerk. — It is proposed to strike out in lines 5, 6, and 7, the words 
'on and after October 1, 1878, said notes shall be receivable ;' strike out in lines 
8 and 9 the words ' October 1, 18*78/ and insert in lieu thereof the following 
words ' the passage of this act ;' strike out in line 9 the word ' permanently ; r 
also strike out in lines 22, 23, and 24, the words ' shall cease and become in- 
operative on and after the said October 1, 1878,' and insert in lieu thereof the 
following words 'is hereby repealed,'. so that the substitute reported by way of 
amendment by the Committee on Finance shall read as follows : 

That from and after the passage of this act United States notes shall be receiv- 
able in payment for the 4 per cent, bonds now authorized by law to be issued, and 
for duties on imports, and said notes in the volume in existance on the passage of 
this act shall not be canceled nor horded, but shall be reissued, and they may be 
used for funding, and all other lawful purposes whatsoever, to an amount not ex- 
ceeding in the whole the aggregate amount thereof then in circulation and in the 
Treasury; and the said notes, whether then in the Treasury or thereafter received, 
under any act of Congress, and from whatever source, shall be again paid out; 
and when again returned to the Treasury they shall not be canceled nor destroyed, 
but shall be reissued from time to time with like qualities ; and all that part of the 
act of January 14, 1875, entitled; ' An act to provide for the resumption of specie 
payments,' authorizing the retirement of 80 per cent, of United States notes, is 
hereby repealed. 

Sec 2. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent with this act shall be, and here- 
by are, repealed. 

Mr. Voorhees. — I ask that the amendments just read and the substitute 
offered by the committee as now sought to be amended be printed and lie 
upon the table. 

I desire further to state that I have offered these amendments not as the basis 
of a compromise for the surrender of the House bill, but for the purpose of im- 
proving, as far as possible, the substitute reported by the committee. If that sub- 
stitute should be adopted by the Senate I desire to bring substantial and immedi- 
ate relief to the people as far as it goes. It is my purpose, however, to support 
the bill for the repeal of the act enforcing the resumption of specie payments, just 
as it passed the House on the 23d day of November last. On this issue I shall 
seek to obtain the direct vote of the Senate at an early day. 

Mr. Gordon. — I hope the amendments suggested by the Senator from Indiana 
will be printed. 

The President pro tempore. — That has been ordered under the rule. 

Mr. Gordon. — While I am up I move that the report of the committee to which 
the Senator from Indiana has referred, and to which the amendments relate, be 
made the special order for Wednesday, the 1st day of May, that is, Wednesday a 
week. I will state that I did not speak upon the silver bill, because I desire a 
subject of a little wider range than that bill legitimately furnished, and I wish to 
speak upon this bill. I move, therefore, that it be made the special order for 
Wednesday, the 1st day of May. I think that would give abundant time for any 
amendments to be suggested and considered by the Senate." 

Of this continued attempt to repeal the Eesumption Act, and in 
every possible way bring the nation into discredit, and ultimately 



43 

to absolute ruin, Voorheess the most illogical, and Gen. Tom 
Ewing, of Ohio, by all odds the clearest thinker and finest orator 
and debater of the party in the House of Eepresentatives, have 
been the special champions, while an examination of the Con- 
gressional Record will show that no one of the many distinguished 
and earnest supporters of the nation's honor and credit have been 
more fearless, earnest and effective than General James A. Gar- 
field, the glorious and gallant standard bearer of the Republican 
party in this year of Republican triumph, 1880. 

Here is the position of the Republican party as given by Sena- 
tor Morrill of Vermont, one of the acknowledged authorities of 
the Senate on financial questions, in a speech of the 20th of May, 
1878 : 

" Contraction of paper money hitherto has been almost wholly imaginary and 
"Will surely have lost its terrors when contraction, real or fanciful, wholly disap- 
pears in expansion, especially when it shall be seen that all the dykes are broken 
down, and both gold and silver, long pent up, find no unrestricted outlet to ferti- 
lize every part of our country. When the resumption act passed in 1875, it 
might have been pardonable to doubt its propriety, for $1 then in gold brought 
$1.12| in currency; but now $1 in gold brings less than a half per cent, pre- 
mium. Resumption is made easy and its wisdom is fully vindicated. The 
national banks are ready to co-operate. Business men hail it with acclamation 
and will joyfully contribute to its success. "When it costs little or nothing to ex- 
change paper for coin, and when no importer complains of the hardship of 
obtaining it, no one else should complain that coin is a necessity at the 
custom-house. With banking free, bringing forth one hundred cents for every 
eighty cents of legal-tenders surrendered, giving out fifty millions in exchange 
for forty, the wants of trade are in no danger of suffering from a lack of cur- 
rency. It is also proposed to take greenbacks for 4 per cent, bonds. If we can 
thus refund our national debt at a lower rate, who will be angry, and why should 
it not be done ? By this process we are likely to save more interest than will be 
paid out on the fifty million gold loan. 

These are some of the substantial points upon which, as it appears to me, all 
might now come together in perfect accord. There is little left to wrangle about 
or that can fret even a sore imagination, and that little we should try to diminish. 
Our exports so far exceed our imports that exchanges are certainly not against 
us, and both the gold and silver bullion from the Pacific seem determined not to 
leave our shores. The old nest of financial disputes has had its eggs washed away 
by passing events, and it was only the silly setting goose that when the flood came 
vainly paddled over and above the submerged site of the empty nest after the eggs 
had all been swept away. Let us hail resumption, now imminent, as an event, 
however brought about, that may quicken the pulse of the nation and start us once 
more on the highways of national prosperity. 

But the objections to the substitute are that it brings forth several regretable 
points which may prove detrimental, or turn out to be possible hinderances, to 
practical resumption, and which are certainly incompatible with a strict observance 
of the public faith solemnly pledged in our own statutes now in force, and from 
their very nature irrepealable. What we are about to enact may stand as a per- 
manent law, not merely on the 1st day of October next, or even on the 1st of Jan- 



44 

uary, but for all coming time until modified or repealed. To say, as the substi- 
tute does say, that greenbacks ' shall be received for duties on imports,' giving 
no option, would compel the Government to receive them under whatever change 
of circumstances, however great the inconvenience, and might deprive us of the 
coin absolutely required to meet lawful engagements. Moreover, the opinion is 
based upon the idea of a blindfold jump to resumption, or upon the free delivery 
of coin for all notes presented, and then to get the coin afterwards. It is a reversal 
of all sound husbandry. To me it appears rashly imprudent to leap into any po- 
sition where, by any possibility, we might be forced to receive nothing but paper 
and pay out nothing but coin. It affords an exhausted Treasury no chance to re- 
cuperate. If the time was postponed for such an experiment to the first of Jan- 
uary, 18*79, it would not look so bad on its face, for thenitis expected that we shall 
pay coin for greenbacks, and to that extent treat them as of equal value ; but even 
then the permanent safety of the Government would require that only permission 
should be granted that legal tenders may be received for duties on imports. It 
should not be compulsory. This was never contemplated as even a possible func- 
tion of the legal tender notes ; and on the back of every such note may be read the 
printed exception that it is not to be a legal tender for ' duties on imports and 
interest on the public debt.' Every note issued bears this protest against any 
such use, and it will be ever squarely in the face of every holder. 

There is, however, another and more insuperable objection to this proposal: 
that it is not only a clear and open violation of the law (section 34*73), which pro- 
vides that ' all duties on imports shall be paid in gold and silver coin only/ but 
conspicuously so of section 3693 and 3694, of the Revised Statutes, where we may 
read as follows: 

The faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or 
its equivalent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, 
known as United States notes, and of all the interest bearing obligations of the 
United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of any ouch ob- 
ligation has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money or 
other currency than gold and silver. 

The coin paid for duties on imported goods shall be set apart as a special fund 
and shall be applied as follows : 

First. To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds and notes of the 
United States. 

These acts, perhaps the most memorable in our statutes, were passed by the 
Senate and House of Representatives, and approved by the President of the 
United States ; and shall the Senate, uninvited by any overwhelming emergency, 
be the first and foremost to disregard and renounce such a pledge ? This solemnly 
recorded pledge was made to give a higher credit to the national loans we were 
then contracting. Can we withdraw it at our own will and pleasure without be- 
clouding our national reputation ? Of course I feel that it cannot be intended, by 
those who favor this provision, to wrong any party who has trusted our fidelity 
to laws of our own making — the coin will somehow be obtained for all creditors — 
but in no cheaper or more legitimate mode ; and by its adoption we shall have in- 
flicted an irreparable wrong upon ourselves." 

********* 

" Resumption is a measure apart from the interests of the bondholders — apart 

from the interests of gold-brokers — and looks solely to giving a more absolute and 

unchanging value to the money which passes from hand to hand, and which the 



45 

workingmen of our country are compelled to receive for their constant toil. It is 
good money for the people as well as for the bondholders. 

This is our common country, in whose prosperity we all have an equal and 
abiding share. It cannot be for the interest of any man, however exalted or how- 
ever humble, nor of any party, large or small, and however sharp and immovable 
its political boundaries, to labor for the defeat of an honest effort to promote the 
public welfare, which will place our financial affairs in the sound condition con- 
templated by the founders of our republican institutions; that condition which has 
so largely contributed to the growth of the American people, with only limited 
interruptions, throughout its career of a hundred years, and which every civilized 
or half-civilized nation aims at and would be proud to enjoy. To defeat a return to 
specie payments now, either by assault or by ill-directed attempts to hasten its com- 
ing, when we are on the brink of fruition, would throw a fearful responsibility 
upon those who should by any act of omission or commission become identified 
with the inglorious fact. The dearly bought financial experience of recent years 
cannot be forgotten, and no sane man can wish to have it repeated or prolonged. 
Fictitious money, crop-eared and always at a discount, is not less productive of 
bankruptcy in morals than in business ; and, wherever absolute verity does not 
prevail in the money current, the contagious doctrine of retaliatory or compensa- 
tory frauds is likely to be speedily engendered and widely disseminated." 

And here is what the President of the United States, in his an- 
nual message of December, 1879, more than a year after Senator 
Morrill spoke, and when the resumption act had had a trial of a 
year less one month : 

'THE PUBLIC FINANCES. 

The attention of Congress is called to the annual report of the Secretary of the 
Treasury on the condition of the public finances. The ordinary revenues from all 
sources for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1879, were $273, 827,184.46. The ordi- 
nary expenditures for the same period were $266,947,083.53, leaving a surplus 
revenue for the year of $6,879,300.93. The receipts for the present fiscal year, 
ending June 30, 1880, actual and estimated, are as follows: Actual receipts for the 
first quarter, commencing July 1, 1879, $79,843,663.61 ; estimated receipts for the 
remaining three-quarters of the year, $208,156,336.39. Total receipts for the cur- 
rent fiscal year, actual and estimated, $288,000,000. The expenditures for the 
same period will be, actual and estimated, as follows : For the quarter commenc- 
ing July 1, 1878, actual expenditures, $91,683,385.10 ; and for the remaining 
three quarters of the year, the expenditures are estimated at $172,316,614.90, 
making the total expenditures $264,000,000, and leaving an estimated surplus 
revenue for the year ending June 30, 1880, of $24,0<>0,000. 

The total receipts during the next fiscal year, ending June 30, 1881, estimated 
according to existing laws, will be $288,000,000, and the estimated ordinary ex- 
penditures for the same period will be $278,097,364.39, leaving a surplus of 
$9,902,635.61 for that year. The large amount expended for arrears of peusions 
during the last and the present fiscal year, amounting to $21,747,249.60, has pre- 
vented the application of the full amount required by law to the sinking fund for 
the current year, but these arrears having been substantially paid, it is believed 
that the sinking fund can hereafter be maintained without any change of existing 
law." 



46 

As to the much abused National banks, Mr. Sherman, in his 
Cooper Union speech in New York, on the 27th day of October 
last, says : 

" In the progress toward specie payments two financial questions have arisen, 
upon which it may be proper for me to make a few remarks, for both of them will 
enter largely into our political discussions. One is the proposed abolition of the 
National bajiks, and the other is the free coinage of silver dollars. 

I feel bound to say that the system of National banks, adopted by the Repub- 
lican party, has proved a most important aid and agency in the business of the 
country, the advance of its credits, and in the refunding of the public debt. This 
admirable system of banking, designed to supercede State banks, has realized all 
the hopes of its authors. Its notes are now redeemable daily at the Treasury in 
coin, or notes equal to coin. They are of universal circulation throughout the 
United States, secured beyond all peradventure against loss or failure or counter- 
feiting, and the amount can be varied to meet the varying wants of business. The 
system is free as any other occupation or employment in life. [Applause.] 

It has been quite the fashion of the Democratic party to attack this system be- 
cause it is supposed that any moneyed institution is subject to popular outcry. It 
has been proposed by the Democratic party that this system shall be superceded 
by a new issue of United States notes, in violation of the law of 1864, and 
the whole basis upon which this measure is proposed is that it will save the peo- 
ple of the United States the interest on the circulating notes so issued. 

Even on the narrow ground of interest, such a measure would be an immediate 
loss, for the taxes levied upon the banks by State and National authority are now 
greater by several millions than the entire interest at 4 per cent, on all the bank 
notes in circulation. The destruction of the banks would be the loss of this tax. 
The United States bonds, deposited as security for the notes, are now in effect 
taxable as capital stock of the bank, but would not be taxable in the hands of pri- 
vate parties ; and thus, by the destruction of the banks, nearly all the capital 
employed in them would assume a form, in the hands of private parties, beyond 
the reach of taxation. In this city alone the taxes on National banks amount to 
$2,832,981,49, while 4 per cent, interest on their circulating notes is $893,144.96. 
Abolish the banks and the $25,745,500 of United States bonds held by them and 
forming the body of their capital stock now taxable will cease to be taxable, 
whether held by private persons or corporations. This deficit in your taxes 
would have to be made up by taxes on other property. 

But this argument of profit and loss is the least of several objections to the 
abolition of National banks. They are interwoven with all the commercial busi- 
ness of the country, and their loans and discounts form our most active and useful 
capital, and the collection of which would create the most wide-reaching distress. 
Again, the abolition of the National banks would inevitably lead to the incorpor- 
ation^ State banks, especially in bankrupt States, where any expedient to make 
paper money cheap will be quickly resorted to, and thus we will encounter again 
all the innumerable difficulties of exchange and business which existed before the 
war under the system of State banks. Again, it will open the question of the 
repeal of the provisions of the loan laws fixing a limit to the amount of United 
States notes, and thus will shock the publie credit and raise new questions of 
authority, which the Supreme Court would probably declare to be unconstitu- 
tional. 



47 

Free banking open to all, with prompt and easy redemption, supplies a currency 
to meet the varying wants of different periods and seasons. Who would risk 
such a question to the changing votes of Congress ? I will not disparage your 
intelligence by the discussion of propositions gravely made during this canvass, 
that seem to me to border on lunacy. They were all based upon the claim that 
Congress had the power to, and ought to, issue paper money without 
regard to the limits fixed by law, without regard to redemption, and 
based entirely upon what they call the want of business. With a high 
opinion of the general intelligence of Congress, I do not believe they 
have such a power, nor ought it to be conferred upon them. The present volume of 
United States notes was issued during the war, and their issue and reissue 
has been upheld by the Supreme Court. We have had a weary struggle to bring 
them to the standard of coin. There let us rest. I, for one, am in favor of main- 
taining them in circulation, supported by an ample reserve in coin, but am equally 
in favor of allowing all other paper money to be issued by corporations under a 
law free and open to all, so that the business of banking will be like any other 
business of private life. If experience shows that the existing law is subject to 
abuse, then Congress can readily, by general law, restrain them, even to the ex- 
tent of a tax equal to any portion of the interest on the bonds held as security 
for their circulating notes. But the general principles of the system of National 
hanks cannot be greatly improved. They fill the commercial want of furnishing 
a safe, uniform, convenient currency, unrivalled in excellenee by any banking 
system heretofore devised. [Applause.] 

Again, my fellow citizens, by an act passed in 1864, in the darkest period of the 
war, when General Grant [cheers] was in the Wilderness, when General Sherman 
was before Atlanta, then it was that the people of the United States placed upon 
the public records a limit to the amount of United States notes to be issued, and 
decreed that it should never exceed the sum of four hundred million dollars. 
That is now a part of the law of the land, and it was done to check the deprecia- 
tion of the United States notes, and is one of the bases and corner-stones which 
prevent a further depreciation of these notes ; and from that time they began to 
rise in value. The law restricting the issue of those notes cannot be violated 
without violating the public honor, and a mandate of the Supreme Court would 
arrest any attempt to issue new notes in a time of profound peace, especially now, 
when the country is blessed with the best currency it has ever had or ever will 
have." [Cheers.] 

Is anything more necessary ? Prosperity reigns ; the blast- 
furnaces of Pennsylvania are seething and hissing night and day ; 
the great and varied manufactories of New York are strained to 
fill advance orders, and the products of New England's skilled 
labor and industry are in successful competition with those of Old 
England in the markets of the world. This is all the result of 
Kepublican policy, courage and patriotic statesmanship. "And 
yet the Democrats are not happy." They still cry out for a suffi- 
cient volume of greenbacks to meet the wants of the people. 
They want not the money that is made by labor, but that which 
may be made by law. 



PART III. 

The Fraud ik Maine. 

To show that the policy of the Democratic party, whether South 
or North, is the same, namely, fraud or force, and when both of 
these elements are found necessary to success and opportunity 
offers, a readiness to use both, it is only necessary to give the lead- 
ing facts of the no less infamous than notorious efforts of Gar- 
celon and his co-conspirators in Maine during the closing days and 
weeks of 1879. 

From the mass of papers now before me, collected day by day at 
the time of these occurrences, I select, because of its clearness of 
statement and signal power, Mr. Blaine's speech at Augusta, on 
the 19th of December, 1879. The report is from the New York 
Times, and, after careful perusal, I find that I cannot omit a word 
without impairing its force. Mr. Blaine said : 

"It is well, Mr. Chairman, in a meeting of this Mad, to understand with pre- 
cision the grievance of which the people complain. Let me state it as briefly as 
possible. On the 8th day of September last the voters of Maine, in pursuance 
of this organic law, proceeded to elect a Governor, and Senators and Representa- 
tives in the Legislature. The election was preceded by a prolonged, thorough, 
and a somewhat exciting canvass of the State. The Hon. Anson P. Morrill, who 
I regret is not able to be with us this evening, told me that he had voted for 
fifty-five consecutive years in Maine, and in many of the campaigns had taken, as 
we all know, an active part, and that, in the whole of that long period, he had 
never known a political contest in which the issues before the people had been so 
ably, so elaborately, and so thoroughly discussed, both on the stump and by the 
press. He said he did not believe there had ever been a year in which every 
citizen of the State knew so well just what he intended by his vote as in the 
election of 1879. I am sure that would be the testimony of every honest and 
candid man in the State. The vote was full, free and fair. The result of that 
election, as shown by the official returns, was to give the Republican candidate 
for Governor a plurality of 2.1,000 votes over the Greenback candidate, and of 
46,000 over the Democratic candidate. ' In the Legislature, by the official returns, 
the Republicans chose 19 Senators and the opposition 12 Senators, and in the 
House the Republicans chose 90 members and the opposition 61. On the Legis- 
lative ticket, the Republicans had an absolute majority of nearly 5,000 on the 
popular vote. This was the result, as shown by official returns made by the city 
and town clerks, and immediately made public by the Secretary of State. When 
the sealed returns were opened some weeks later, to be counted by the Governor 
and Council, they disclosed the same result that had been published from the clerks' 
returns, and common honesty and common decency, to say nothing of official 
integrity, required that the men chosen by the people should be declared elected 
and receive their certificates. 



4J 

But the Governor and Council have declared otherwise, and, in collusion with 
other well-known men, they entered into a conspiracy to change the result and 
deprive the people of their choice ; and then began the remarkable count which 
has just closed to the lasting dishonor and disgrace of all who had a part or lot 
in it. They began to discover ' fatal defects,' as Governor Garcelon termed 
them, in the returns from Republican towns. Here and there an'i' was not 
dotted, or a ' t' not crossed, or a man had * Jr.' left off his name, or the initial 
letter of his middle name was wrong, or the ballot that elected him had the names 
printed at right angles to the narrow side when they should have been parallel, 
or the signatures of all the town officers to the acute eye of a single Councillor, 
without any other evidence, were written in the same hand ; or the total number 
of votes was not filled out in the right part of the election blank, or one of the 
town officers was an alien, or the Selectmen wer,e permitted to swear away their 
return by ex parte affidavit. Although they had once sworn the return was sealed 
in open town meeting, they now swear it was not ; or the return of cities was 
signed by only three Aldermen, just according to the blank' sent out from the 
office of the Secretary of State, after being prepared as a trap or pitfall. 

These, and numerous other minor points of like value, were freely used to de- 
stroy the popular vote and maintain in power the party and men whom the 
people have rejected. The result of the whole of this pitiful and wicked petti- 
fogging was to change a Republican majority of 7 in the Senate and 29 in the 
House, to a fusion majority of 9 in the Senate and 17 in the House, with five 
Republican cities completely disfranchised, and denied by the Governor and 
Council the poor boon of a new election ; so that Portland, Lewiston, Bath, Rock- 
land, and Saco are absolutely rendered incapable of taking any part in the 
organization of the Legislature, or in the choice of Governor, or in the election of 
State officers, or in the original composition of the House committees, which 
shape and practically control legislation. Perhaps, if the representatives chosen 
by these five important cities will humbly petition the House and cool their heels 
in the ante-chamber of Fusion greatness for three or four weeks, they may be 
permitted to be sworn in, when they can no longer embarrass the progress of the 
conspirators' programme, and no longer be able to serve their constituents. 
These five cities have a valuation of more than $51,000,000, and pay nearly one- 
quarter of the entire taxes of the State. To be accurate, they pay 23 per cent, 
of the whole. This very year the Fusion State Government has levied and 
collected from these cities more than $200,000 of taxes ; and now, by virtue of a 
disgraceful trick concocted in the office of the Secretary of State, four of these 
cities are disfranchised. The fifth — our beautiful metropolis, Portland — pays 
$118,000 of taxes, and is denied representation on the paltriest of dishonest pre- 
texts, and is not even allowed the opportunity of a new election. But I will not 
allow myself to go into a long speech. Before closing, however, I beg you to 
observe the following points : 

First. — The Governor and Council have refused certificates to twi nty-nine Re- 
publican members of the House and to eight Senators, thirty -seven in all swept off 
and out by one wave of an autocratic hand. 

Second. — Of this entire number there was not one case for which the law did Dot 
provide and direct the mode of correction. But the Council said the law was un- 
constitutional, and they set it aside. They gave out that Henry W. Paine, of Bos- 

4 



50 

ton, advised them that was their proper course. When I see an opinion of Henry 
W. Paine that the Executive Department may at will set aside the laws they are 
sworn to enforce, I will unite with his other Kennebec friends in deploring the 
decay of his splendid intellect and the loss of his admirable judgment. Until 
then I prefer to remember Henry W. Paine as I have known him for a quarter of 
a century. 

Third. — There have been fifty-nine annual elections in Maine, carried in turn by 
the old National Republicans, by Democrats, by Whigs, and for twenty-two years 
by the Republicans. In all that time not so many ' fatal defects ' in the returns 
have been found, nor so many Senators and Representatives counted out as Gov. 
Oarcelon and his Council have counted out this single year. I will not add — not 
italf so many. 

Fourth, — And all the 'fatal defects' are in Republican Senatorial and Repre- 
sentative districts. Not one of the Democrats or Greenbackers elected to the 
Senate or House was found to have a defective return behind him — of course not, 
after the returns had been secretly and surreptitiously doctored, as openly declared 
by the Hon. Charles B. Rounds. These returns were cooked and made over to fit 
the requirements, and the Council never dared to accept Mr: Rounds' offer to prove 
his charges. It is understood that they are taking characteristic revenge on Mr. 
Rounds, by counting him out of the office of County Attorney, to which he was 
honestly elected. 

Fifth. — A few Fusion towns have been counted out here and there, but always 
;so selected as not to affect the result, and still more cunningly selected so as to 
apparently justify the counting out of a large Republican town that would destroy 
a Republican Senator or Representative. To contrive all this required time, and 
so the present Council worked over the returns, cooking and doctoring them from 
October 30th to December 17th. For this period they did it openly. How long 
before October 30th the returns were surreptitiously opened will never be known 
until the Council grant the investigation asked for by Mr. Rounds. Ordinarily, 
in former years, a week or ten days sufficed for an honest Council to count the re" 
turns. 

Sixth. — To make some sort of covering for the atrocious fraud they have com- 
>mitted, a, great effort has been made to prove that the Republicans carried the 
•election by bribery and corruption. This is a factious and fraudulent pretense, 
.got up to cover a case. Why don't they indict somebody? They tried it in Sep- 
tember before a Grand Jury, two-thirds of whose members were Fusionists, and 
they came very near indicting Democrats instead of Republicans. They have got 
nip a large number of affidavits from men of a certain character, telling how they 
liad been bought for $1 or $2, or some trifling sum. Many of these affidavits have 
•been recalled by parties who made counter-statements declaring they had made 
the first affidavit when drunk, on liquor which the Democratic agent furnished. 
If a man will sell his vote for a dollar, or any other sum, he is hardly the witness 
to appear as the public prosecutor of a great party. The whole effort to sustain 
the bribery charge has been attended with disgraceful conduct by the men who 
started it, and who have systematically bribed their witnesses to commit perjury. 
These Democratic and Greenback agents have really been guilty themselves of 
bribery, of subornation of perjury, and of getting men drunk enough to, be par- 
ticipants in both crimes. 



51 

Seventh. — Some of the Democrats who chuckle in private over this infamy, and 
-do not wish to come out in square approval of it, are in the habit of charging 
it off against Louisiana, where, they allege, the Republicans cheated the Demo- 
crats. Well! Certainly. Maine Republicans did not cheat Louisiana Democrats, 
and even if somebody else had done so, Maine Republicans ought not to be made 
a vicarious sacrifice. But there was a cheat in Louisiana. The bull-dozers and 
murderers of that State were warned by law that wherever they wrought violence 
in a parish, and destroyed the right and power of peaceful voting, the parish 
should be thrown out. This was the law ; whether wise or unwise was not for us 
to determine. But it was the law, and the enforcement of that law defeated Mr. 
Tilden and elected President Hayes. But where on earth is the analogy to sustain 
a fraud in Maine, unless you consider it good morals to steal my purse because 
you think an acquaintance of mine robbed your friend in Louisiana ? 

Eighth. — And now we are asked, with the insolence of the highwayman making 
•off with stolen property, what are we going to do about it ? We are pursued 
with the taunt that we cannot help ourselves, and are boldly told that the same 
tribunal that has 'done' the country this year will be in a position next year to 
repeat the game, and such I have no doubt is the deliberate intention. Success 
always inspires courage, and if the people of Maine meekly submit now, they will 
be called on for a still greater display of meekness hereafter. The prizes next 
year, besides the State offices, are five Representatives, a Senator of the United 
States, seven Presidential Electors, and the undisputed possession of the political 
power of the State till January, 1 883, as we are to have biennial elections here- 
after. Within that time they could apportion the State into Legislative and Con- 
gressional districts to suit themselves, gerrymandering, at will to appoint the Val- 
uation Commissioners, who will punish certain sections of the State by an undue 
and unfair share of taxation, and generally run riot, after the reckless style of the 
Administration already inaugurated. This is the treat to which the people are 
invited ; this is the burden for which they are asked to bend their backs ; this is 
the degradation to which they are expected to submit. A great popular uprising- 
will avert these evils and restore honest government to Maine, and the people are 
already moving." 

At this same meeting the resolutions that were adopted declare: 

First. — That a Republican form of goverment requires and demands prompt and 
hearty submission to the will of the majority as expressed at the polls, and any 
attempt to thwart this will or deprive the people of their choice, is a crime against 
liberty, which, if successful, will undermine civil order, corrupt society, and lead 
to bloodshed and anarchy. 

Second. — That Alonzo Garcelon, Governor of Maine, and the seven Executive 
Councillors associated with him, have forfeited the confidence and earned the con- 
demnation of the people of this State by falsely counting and falsely declar- 
ing the result of the recent election, and attempting to install the minority in 
jDOwer over the majority. They have committed this crime knowingly, willfully, 
and deliberately, with light before their eyes, and in defiance of the remon- 
strances, evidence, and proofs submitted to them by the aggrieved and outraged 
parties. 

Third. — That a great crime of this kind, attempted for the first time in Maine, 
cannot carry with it the authority of law, and must not be permitted to achieve 



52 

its wrongful and wicked design. We call on all good citizens to unite with us in 
averting this threatened calamity, and we make a special and direct appeal to 
those men who were fraudulently counted in as Senators and Representatives not 
to contaminate their honor nor soil their consciences by accepting the wages of 
sin. They, each and all, have it in their power to refuse to act as receivers of 
stolen goods, and thus escape the brand of infamy which surely awaits thieves." 

The admirable letters of ex-Senator Morrill, unanswerable in 
their facts, their logic impregnable, and the courageous and patri- 
otic course of General Chamberlain and Eugene Hale, followed by 
the unanimous and repeated decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
State of Maine, sustaining the Eepublican case on every point sub- 
mitted, and as:ain deciding against Garcelon on the case as made 
by himself, ultimately succeeded in defeating this the most auda- 
cious, disloyal and dastardly fraud that ever was attempted on 
representative Government. 

That it was the skirmish line of the Democratic army of traitor 
thieves, who contemplate the more gigantic enterprise of stealing 
the Presidency in March, 1880, no intelligent, honest man can for 
a moment doubt. Whether the men, and their descendants, of the 
twenty Northern States of this Union, who gave a half million of 
lives and five thousand millions of dollars to save it; crimsoned 
the green grass of America with the blood of her best and bravest ; 
and watered its fields with the tears of mothers, widows and 
orphans of those who fell, will permit the Eepublic now to fall a 
]3rey to this Democratic force and fraud, is the question to be set- 
tled at the coming election of November, 1880. 

" There is a weapon surer yet, 

" And stronger than the bayonet; 

" A weapon that comes down as still 

" As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 

" And executes a freeman's will 

" As lightening does the will of God." 



PART IV. 

Copperhead redivivus. — The pretended friendship of 
the Democratic Leaders for the Union Soldier. — 
Arrears of Pensions, etc. 

The sudden and new-found burst of friendship for the Union 
soldier on the part of the Democrats in Congress within the last 
year or two, must be amusing to the veterans of the late war for 
the Union, and to the widows and orphans of those who fell for 
their country, an insult which they must repel with just indigna- 
tion. Bah ! Friends indeed. Who forgets the dark days of 1862 
when in New York the families of soldiers who were in the field, 
were made the scoff and jeer of every Democratic traitor who staid 
at home ? When the thieves and traitors who composed the rebel 
home-guards of the North were organizing for their draft riots of 
a year later in the great commercial metropolis of the nation and 
who, when they were carrying out their hellish purpose, were ad- 
dressed by two distinguished New York men in quite different 
tones: by Horatio Seymour, then Governor of New York, as " My 
Friends/'' and by the immortal John A. Dix with grape and can- 
ister and the sharp response of the Minnie-ball. Dix, the patriotic 
soldier and hero, who always had a ready answer for treason and 
traitors, saying to Governor Seymour when he made his mock 
offering of men to suppress the rioters, "I have men enough to 
take care of them and you." 

What soldier of Ohio fails to remember that year when Val- 
landigham was making preparations for the reception of his friend 
John Morgan on his mission of destruction to the hearths and 
homes of Ohio soldiers, and slaughter to their wives, while they 
were absent fighting for their country and these same homes? 
And foremost among these brave Ohio boys, James A. Garfield, 
the glorious young soldier who was then fighting his way to the 
rank he soon after won, the highest in the field. 

Can we forget or even forgive the crime that we still shudder at 
the thought of, that during that year of darkness and gloom the 
patriotic Blackburn was risking his life and spending his fortune 
in the hospitals of the tropics purchasing yellow-fever infected 
clothing to send to the northern cities of the Union as a new 
means of destroying the enemies of the so-called Confederacy ? 
He is now honored by the Democrats of Kentucky with the Gov- 
ernorship of that State. Was not this the time when Union 
soldiers were in the estimation of northern Copperheads (I do not 
say Democrats, for all Democrats are not Copperheads, but it is at 
the same time undeniable that all Copperheads and traitors were 
at that time as now — Democrats), Lincoln hirelings, and the 
greenbacks with which they were paid, worthless paper, useful 
only to paper bar-rooms and barber shops. This was the vein of 
the soldier's friends in those dark days. Lately, in this latter re- 
spect as to " Greenbacks," a new light has come over the spirit of 



54 

their dreams, and for three years they have been howling like 
maniacs for more " Greenbacks." Two years ago, in Cooper Insti- 
tute, New York, William M. Evarts disposed 'of these fellows in 
one sentence, and not one of his long ones either, telling them 
that the trouble with the greenbacks then was not that they pur- 
chased too little, but that they purchased too much ; that the 
greenbacks purchased the musket and the cannon ; the powder 
and the ball, and the rations and clothes for the Union soldiers 
who used these apt and happy means to put the traitors under 
and save the Union. 

Is not the conduct of these friends (?) of the soldiers in Indiana 
during those days a matter of history, when a Legislature, a ma- 
jority of whom turned out after to be "Knights of the Golden 
Circle," refused to the lamented Morton a dollar to put his troops 
in the field, and that patriot of patriots had to come to Washing- 
ton and appeal to his friend, President Lincoln, who promptly 
supplied him with the necessary funds? 

To be sure they are the soldier's friend, and, accordingly, last 
year, when they had two splendid Union soldiers on their ticket in 
Ohio, whose valor and patriotism were never doubted, the Demo- 
cratic press all over Ohio claimed for General Eice the credit of 
having secured the passage of the Arrears of Pensions Bill, and of 
being its author. I don't believe Mr. Eice ever did or would make 
such a claim himself. But see how easy that wooden gun is 
spiked. 

The following appears in the Congressional Record of the 2d of 
April, 1878 : 

"ARREARS OF PENSIONS. 
Mr. Cummings — I move that the rules be suspended and the bill which I send to 
the Clerk's desk be passed. 

The Clerk read as follows : 
A bill to provide that all pensions on account of death, or wounds received, or 
disease contracted in the service of the United States during the late war of 
the rebellion, which have been granted, or which shall hereafter be granted, 
shall commence from the date of death or discharge from the service of 
the United States ; for the payment of arrears of pensions and other pur- 



Be it enacted, dec, That all pensions which have been granted under the general 
laws regulating pensions, or may hereafter be, in consequence of death from a 
cause which originated in the United States service during the continuance of the 
late war of the rebellion, or in consequence of Avounds, injuries or disease received 
or contracted in said service during said war of the rebellion, shall commence 
from the date of the death or discharge from said service of the person on 
whose account the claim has been or shall hereafter be granted, or from the 
termination of the right of the party having prior title to such pension : Provided, 
The rate of pension for the intervening time for which arrears of pension are 
hereby granted shall be the same per month for which the pension was originally 
granted. 

Sec. 2. That the Commissioner of Pensions is hereby authorized and directed to 
adopt such rules and regulations for the payment of the arrears of pensions hereby 
granted as will be necessary to cause to be paid to such pensioners, or, if the pen- 
sioners shall have died, to the person or persons entitled to the same, all such 
arrears of pension as the pensioner may be or would have been entitled to under 
this act. 



55 

Sec. 3. That section 4*717 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which 
provides that ' no claim for pension not prosecuted to a successful issue within 
five years from the date of tiling the same shall be admitted without record- 
evidence from the War or Navy Department of the injury or disease which 
resulted in the disability or death of the person on whose account the claim is 
made: Provided, That in any case in which the limitation prescribed- by this 
section bars the further prosecution of the claim the claimant may present, 
through the Pension Office, to the Adjutant-General of the Army or the Surgeon- 
General of the Navy evidence that the disease or injury which resulted in the 
disability or death of the person on whose account the claim is made originated 
in the service and in the line of duty; and if such evidence is deemed satisfactory 
by the officer to whom it may be submitted he shall cause a record of the fact so 
proved to be made, and a copy of the same to be transmitted to the Commissioner 
of Pensions, and the bar to the prosecution of the claim shall thereby be removed,' 
be, and the same is hereby, repealed. 

Sec 4. That all acts, or parts of acts, so far as they may conflict with the pro- 
visions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed. 

Mr. Beebe — I would like to ask the gentleman from Iowa if he is prepared to 
state how many hundreds of millions of dollars this bill will take out of the 
Treasury ? 

Mr. Cummings — Is debate in order ? 

Mr. Beebe — I simply rise to make an inquiry. 

Mr. Cummings — I object to any inquiry unless it is a parliamentary one, and that, 
of course, should not be addressed to me. 

Mr. Rice, of Ohio — I ask that the bill be referred to the Committee on Invalid 
Pensions. 

The Speaker — That motion is not in order; the motion of the gentleman from 
Iowa is to suspend the rules and pass the bill. 

Mr. Rice, of Ohio — I wish to state to the House 

Mr. Cummings — I object to any debate whatever. 

Mr. Beebe — I desire to make an inquiry of the Chair. 

The Speaker — The gentleman can make any parliamentary inquiry. 

Mr. Beebe— I would respectfully inquire of the gentleman from Iowa through 
the Chair how many millions of dollars this would take from, the Treasury? 

The Speaker — That is in the nature of an argument why the bill should not 
pass ; the Chair cannot entertain it. 

Mr. Beebe — Then I withdraw it. 

Mr. Clymer — Would it be parliamentary to inquire whether this bill has been 
considered by any committee of the House? 

The Speaker — The Chair cannot answer that question. 

Mr. Rice, of Ohio — It has not. 

Mr. Cummings — I insist upon the regular order. 

The Speaker — The regular order is the motion to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill which has been read. 

Mr. McMahon — I desire to inquire of the gentleman how this bill compares with 
the bill which has already been reported 

The Speaker — That is in the nature of debate. 

Mr. Cummings — I ask for the yeas and nays on my motioD. 

The yeas and nays were ordered. 

Mr. Rice — I move that the House now adjourn, and on that motion I call the 
yeas and nays. 

The yeas and nays were ordered. 



56 



The question was taken; and there were — 3'eas, 15; nays, 148 ; not voting, 58 
as follows : 





YEAS— 15. 




Beebe, 


Eickhoff, 


Hooker, 


Robbins, 


Bell, 


Elam, 


House, 


Ross, 


Bicknell, 


Ellis, 


Hunton, 


Scales, 


Boone, 


Felton, 


Jones, Frank, 


Shelley, 


Bouck, 


Forney, 


Jorgensen, 


Singleton, 


Bright, 


Franklin, 


Kenna, 


Slemons, 


Caldwell, John W. 


Garth, 


Knapp, 


Smalls, 


Caldwell, W. P. 


Gause, 


Knott, 


Smith, William E, 


Clark, of Missouri 


, Giddings, 


Landers, 


Sparks, 


Clymer, 


Glover, 


Ligon, 


Springer, 


Cook, 


Goode, 


Lockwood, 


Swann, 


Cravens, 


Gunter, 


Lynde, 


Throckmorton, 


Crittenden, 


Hardenbergh, 


Manning, 


Tucker, 


Cutler, 


Harris, Henry R. 


Money, 


Turney, 


Davidson, 


Harris, John T. 


Morrison, 


Vance, 


Davis, Joseph J. 


Hartridge, 


Muldrow, 


Wigginton, 


Dibrell, 


Hatcher, 


Muller, 


Williams, Jere N. 


Durham, 


Henry, 


Reagan, 


Yeates. 


Eden, 


Hewitt, G. W. 


Riddle, 






NAYS— 148. 




Acklen, 


Conger, 


Hunter, 


Robinson, M. S. 


Aiken, 


Covert, 


Ittner, 


Ryan, 


Aldrich, 


Cox, Jacob D. 


James, 


Sampson, 


Bacon, 


Crapo, 


Jones, James T. 


Sapp, 


Bagley, 


Culberson, 


Jones, John S. 


Sayler, 


Baker, John H. 


Cummings, 


Joyce, 


Sexton, 


Baker, William H. 


Dan ford, 


Keifer, 


Sinnickson, 


Ballou, 


Davis, Horace, 


Keightly, 


Starin, 


Banks, 


Deering, 


Ketcham, 


Stewart, 


Banning, 


Denison, 


Lathrop, 


Stone, John W. 


Bayne, 


Dickey, 


Lindsey, 


Stone, Joseph C. 


Bisbee, 


Dunn ell, 


Luttrell, 


Strait, 


Blackburn, 


Eames, 


Marsh, 


Thompson, 


Blair, 


Ellsworth, 


Mayham, 


Tipton, 


Bliss, 


Evans, I. Newton, 


McGowan, 


Townsend, Amos 


Boyd, 


Evans, James L. 


McKenzie, 


Townsend, M. I. 


Brentano, 


Finley, 


McKinley, 


Townshend, R. W. 


Brewer, 


Fort, 


McMahon, 


Turner, 


Briggs, 


Foster, 


Metcalfe, 


Van Vorhes, 


Brogden, 


Freeman, 


Monroe, 


Wait, 


Browne, 


Frye, 


Morgan, 


Walsh, 


Buckner, 


Fuller, 


Neal, 


Ward, 


Bundy, 


Gardner, 


Norcross, 


Warner, 


Burchard, 


Garfield, 


Oliver, 


Watson, 


Burdick, 


Hale, 


Page, 


Welch, 


Butler, 


Hamilton, 


Patterson, G. W. 


White, Harry 


Cain, 


Harmer, 


Phelps, 


White, Michael D. 


Calkins, 


Harris, Benj. W. 


Phillips, 


Williams, A. S. 


Campbell, 


Hartzell, 


Pollard, 


Williams, Andrew 


Cannon, 


Haskell, 


Pound, 


Williams, C. G. 


Carlisle, 


Hazelton, 


Price, 


Williams, Richard 


Caswell, 


Hendee, 


Pugh, 


Willis, Albert S. 


Claflin, 


Henderson, 


Rainey, 


Willis, Benj. A. 


Clarke, of Ky. 


Henkle, 


Randolph, 


Willits, 


Clark, Rush, 


Hewitt, Abram S. 


Reed, 


Wilson, 


Cobb, 


Hiscock, 


Rice, Americus V. 


Wren, 


Cole, 


Humphrey, 


Rice, William W. 


Wright. 



Atkins, 


Errett, 


Benedict, 


Evins, John H 


Bland, 


Ewing, 


Blount, 


Gibson, 


Bragg, 


Hanna, 


Bridges, 


Harrison, 


Cabell, 


Hart, 


Camp, 


Hayes, 


Candler, 


Herbert, 


Chalmers, 


Hubbell, 


Chittenden, 


Hungerford, 


Clark, Alvah A. 


Kelley, 


Collins, 


Killinger, 


Cox, Samuel S. 


Kimmel, 


Dean, 


Lapham, 


Douglas, 


Loring, 


Dwight, 


Mackey, 



57 



NOT VOTING— 58. 



Maish, 

Martin, 

McCook, 

Mills, 

Mitchell, 

Morse, 

O'Neill, 

Overton, 

Patterson, 

Peddie, 

Potter, 

Powers, 

Pridemore 

Quinn, 

Pea, 

Reilly, 

Roberts, 



T. M. 



Robertson, 

Robinson, G. D. 

Schleicher, 

Shallenberger, 

Smith, A. Herr 

Southard, 

Steele, 

Stenger, 

Stephens, 

Thornburgh, 

Veeder, 

Waddell, 

Walker, 

Whitthorne, 

Williams, James 

Wood, 

Young 1 . 



So the motion to adjourn was not agreed to. 

During the call of the roll the following announcements were made: 

Mr. Harris, of Virginia — My colleagues, Mr. Pridemore and Mr. Jorgensen, 
are paired on all political questions. Mr. Pridemore is detained at home by illness 
in his family. 

Mr. Foster — I am paired on all political questions with Mr. Waddell, of North 
Carolina. As I do not regard this a political question, I will vote in the nega- 
tive. 

Mr. Patterson, of Colorado — I am paired with Mr. Errett, of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Martin — I am paired with Mr. Hubbell, of Michigan. 

The result of the vote was then announced as above stated. 

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. 



A message from the Senate, by Mr. Sympson, one of its clerks, informed the 
House that the Senate had passed, without amendment, a joint resolution of the 
House of the following title : 

A joint resolution (H. R. No. 142) making an appropriation for filling up, drain- 
ing, and placing in good sanitary condition the grounds south of the Capitol 
along the line of the old canal, and for other purposes. 

The message also announced that the Senate had passed, with amendments in 
which the concurrence of the House was requested, a bill of the House of the 
following title : 

A bill (H. R. No. 3987) to regulate the advertising of mail-lettings. 

The message further announced that the Senate had passed and requested the 
concurrence of the House in a bill of the following title : 

A bill (S. No. 1014) requiring the commissioner for preparing and publishing a 
new edition of the Revised Statutes of the United States to revise and perfect 
the index to the first volume of the same. 



58 



ARREARS OF PENSIONS. 

The question recurred on the motion of Mr. Cummings to suspend the rules and 
and pass the bill indicated by him. 

Mr. Springer — Has this bill been reported from the Committee on Invalid 
Pensions ? 

Mr. Rice, of Ohio — It has not been; the committee have matured a bill of like 
import. 

Mr. Cummings — I object to debate and insist on the regular order. 

Mr. Springer — In order that we may have an opportunity to ascertain what 
this bill is, I move that the House now adjourn. 

The Speaker — That motion is not now in order. 

Mr. Springer — Business has intervened since the last motion to adjourn was 
decided. 

The Speaker — What business ? 

Mr. Springer — The bill has been read. 

The Speaker — That was for the information of the House. 

Mr. Beebe — Has not the House received a message from the Senate since the 
last motion to adjourn? And is not that business of so much importance that it 
even necessitates the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole leaving the 
chair ? 

The Speaker — The Chair will direct the Clerk to read Rule 161, which is very 
plain. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Pending a motion to suspend the rules, the Speaker may entertain one motion 
that the House do now adjourn; but after the result thereon is announced he shall 
not entertain any other dilatory motion till the vote is taken on suspension. 

Mr. Springer — A motion to adjourn is not necessarily a dilatory motion. 
The Speaker — The Clerk will read from page 151 of the Digest. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

A motion to adjourn may be repeated, although no question has been put or 
decided since the former motion, but there must have been some intervening busi- 
ness. Another motion submitted, progress in debate, or reading a paper by the 
Clerk, an order of the yeas and nays, (fee, has been considered 'such intervening 
business ' as will authorize the repetition of the motion to adjourn. 

The Speaker— The Chair does not think that a message from the Senate ever 
has been considered ' intervening business ' in the sense of the rule. 

Mr. Springer — The reading of the bill is intervening business according to the 
rule. 

The Speaker — The bill was read for the information of the House, being the 
bill upon which the House was about to vote, and it was entirely within the right 
of any single member to call for its reading. 

Mr. "Wilson — I desire to ask the gentleman offering this bill one question. 

Mr. Cummings — Regular order ! 

The Speaker — The gentleman declines to answer the question, and demands 
the regular order. The Clerk will call the roll. 

The question was taken : and there were — yeas 145, nays 76, not voting 70 ; 
as follows : 



59 





YEAS-145. 




Aldrich, 


Deering, 


Lathrop, 


Sinnickson, 


Bacon, * 


Denison, 


Lindsey, 


Smalls, 


Bagley, 


Dickey, 


Lock wood, 


Sparks, 


Baker, John H. 


Dunnell, 


Luttrell, 


Springer, 


Baker, William H. 


Eames, 


Marsh , 


Starin, 


Ballou, 


Ellsworth, 


McGowan, 


Stewart, 


Banks, 


Evans, James L. 


McKinley, 


Stone, John W. 


Banning, 


Ewing, 


McMahon, 


Stone, Joseph C. 


Bayne, 


Finley, 


Metcalf. 


Strait, 


Bisbee, 


Fort, 


Mitchell, 


Thompson, 


Blair, 


Freeman, 


Monroe, 


Tipton, 


Bliss, 


Frye, 


Morgan, 


Townsend, Amos 


Bouck, 


Fuller. 


Morrison, 


Townsend, M. I. 


Boyd, 


Gardner, 


Neal, 


Townshend, R. W. 


Brentano, 


Garfield, 


Norcross, 


Turner, 


Brewer, 


Hale, 


Oliver, 


Turney, 


Briggs, 


Hamilton, 


Page, 


Van Vorhes, 


Brogden, 


Harmer, 


Pattereon, G. W. 


Wait, 


Browne, 


Harris, Benj. W. 


Patterson, T. M. 


Walsh, 


Burchard, 


Hartzell, 


Phelps, 


Ward, 


Bnrdick, 


Haskell, 


Phillips, 


Warner, 


Butler, 


Hazelton, 


Pollard, 


Watson, 


Cain, 


Heridee, 


Pound, 


Welch, 


Calkins, 


Henderson, 


Powers, 


White, Harry 


Campbell, 


Hiscock, 


Price, 


White, Michael D. 


Cannon, 


Hunter, 


Pugh, 


Williams, Andrew 


Claflin, 


Humphrey, 


Quinn, 


Williams, A. S. 


Clark, Rush 


Ittner, 


Rainey, 


Williams, C. G. 


Clymer, 


James, 


Randolph, 


Williams, Richard 


Cobb, 


Jones, John S. 


Reed, 


Willis, Benjamin A. 


Cole, 


Jorgensen, 


Rice, Americus V. 


Willits, 


Conger, 


Joyce, 


Robinson, M. S. 


Wilson, 


Crapo, 


Keifer, 


Ross, 


Wren. 


Cummings, 


Keightley, 


Ryan, 


Wright, 


Cutler, 


Kenna, 


Sampson, 




Danford, 


Ketcham, 


Sapp, 




Davis, Horace 


Knapp, 


Sexton, 






NAYS— 76. 




Acklen, 


Culberson, 


Harris, Henry R. 


McKenzie, 


Aiken, 


Davidson, 


Harris, John T. 


Money, 


Bell, 


Davis, Joseph J. 


Hart, 


Morse, 


Bicknell, 


Dibrell, 


Hartridge, 


Muldrow, 


Blackburn, 


Durham, 


Hatcher, 


Rea, 


Boone, 


Eden, 


Henry, 


Reagan, 


Bright, 


Eickhoff, 


Hewitt, Abram S. 


Riddle, 


Buckner, 


Elam, 


Hewitt, G. W. 


Robbins, 


Caldwell, John W. 


Ellis, 


Herbert, 


Scales, 


Caldwell, W. P. 


Felton, 


Hooker, 


Shelley, 


Carlisle, 


Forney, 


House, 


Singleton, 


Clark of Missuri, 


Franklin, 


Hunton, 


Slemons. 


Clarke of Kentucky, Garth, 


Jones, Frank 


Smith, William E. 


Cook, 


Gause, 


Jones, James T. 


Trockmorton, 


Covert, 


Giddings, 


Knott, 


Tucker, 


Cox, Jacob D. 


Glover, 


Ligon, 


Vance, 


Cox, Samuel S. 


Goode, 


Lynde, 


Wig-ginton, 


Cravens, 


Gunter, 


Manning, 


Williams, Jere N. 


Crittenden, 


Hardcnbergh, 


Mayham, 


Yeates. 



60 



NOT VOTING— 10. 



Atkins, 


Dwight, 


Mackey, 


Shallenberger, 


Beebe, 


Errett, 


Maish, 


Smith, A. Herr 


Benedict, 


Evans, I. Newton 


Martin, 


Southard, 


Bland, 


Evins, John H. 


McCook, 


Steele, 


Blount, 


Foster, 


Mills, 


Stenger, 


Bragg, 


Gibson, 


Muller, 


Stephens, 


Bridges, 


Hanna, 


O'Neill, 


Swann, 


Bundy, 


Harrison, 


Overton, 


Thornburgh, 


Cabell, 


Hayes, 


Peddie, 


Veeder, 


Camp, 


Henkle, 


Potter, 


Waddell, 


Candler, 


Hubbell, 


Pridemore, 


Walker, 


Caswell, 


Hungerford, 


Reilly, 


Whitthorne, 


Chalmers, 


Kelley, 


Rice, William W. 


Williams, James 


Chittenden, 


Killinger, 


Roberts, 


Willis, Albert S. 


Clark, Alvah A. 


Kimmel, 


Robertson, 


Wood, 


Collins, 


Landers, 


Robinson, G. D. 


Young. 


Dean, 


Lapham, 


Sayler, 




Douglas, 


Loring, 


Schleicher, 





So (two-thirds not voting in favor thereof) the rules were not suspended. 

During the roll-call the following announcements were made : 

Mr. Aiken — My Colleague from South Carolina, Mr. Evins, is paired on all 
questions of this kind with the gentleman from New York, Mr. McCook. My col- 
league, if present, would vote ' no.' 

Mr. Landers — I am paired with the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Robin- 
son. 

Mr. Evans, of Pennsylvania — I am paired with my colleague, Mr. Mackey. I 
desire also to announce that my colleague, Mr. O'Neill, is paired with my col- 
league, Mr. Stenger. Mr. O'Neill, if present, would vote ' ay.' My colleague, 
Mr. Smith, of Pennsylvania, is paired with the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. 
Atkins. 

Mr. Foster — I am paired with the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Wad- 
dell. His colleagues have generally voted 'no' on this question. If he were 
present, I should vote 'ay.' 

Mr. Ballou — The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Shallenberger, is paired 
with his colleague, Mr. Marsh. Mr. Shallenberger, if present, would vote ' ay.' 

Mr. Mitchell — My colleagues, Mr. Overton and Mr. Reilly, are paired. 

Mr. Bayne — The gentleman from New York, Mr. Dwight, is paired with my 
colleague, Mr. Bridges. 

Mr. Strait — On all political questions I am paired with the gentleman from 
Delaware, Mr. Williams. This does not seem to be a party vote, and I vote 'ay.' 

Mr. Thompson — I desire to announce that my colleague, Mr. Errett, is absent by 
leave of the House. If he were here, he would vote ' ay.' 

Mr. Muldrow — My colleague, General Chalmers, is paired with the gentleman 
from Wisconsin, Mr. Caswell. 

Mr. Caswell — If the friends of General Chalmers regard this as a political ques. 
tion I withdraw my vote. I have voted ' ay.' 

Mr. Martin — I am paired with the gentleman from Michigan. Mr. Hubbell. 

Mr. Boyd — My colleague, Mr. Hayes, is paired w r ith the gentleman from North 
Carolina, Mr. Steele. Mr. Hayes, if present, would vote ' ay.' 

The result of the vote was announced as above stated." 



61 

That is enough to show not only who were the soldier's friends, 
but who was the author and constant advocate of that measure of 
justice to the soldier, his widow and his orphan children, too long 
delayed but finally passed. Whatever credit one man is entitled to 
more than another in regard to it, belongs to Col. Cummings, of 
Wintersett, Iowa, " Honor to whom honor is due." 

Here is what the eloquent Charlie Williams, of Wisconsin, had 
to say on the subject a few days later, April 10th. I am sorry I 
can only give an extract from this patriotic appeal for justice to 
the soldier by one of the best men in this country : 

" The House having under consideration the bill to provide that all pensions 
on account of death, or "wounds received, or disease contracted in the service of 
the United States during the late war of the rebellion, which have been granted, 
or which shall hereafter be granted, shall commence from the date of death or 
discharge from the service of the United States ; for the payment of arrears of 
pensions and other purposes — 

Mr. Williams said: 

Mr. Speaker : I am indebted to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Dickey) for 
yielding to me a portion of his time, that I may place before the House now some 
remarks upon this bill, which its consideration this afternoon under suspension of 
the rules, cutting off debate, prevented my doing. I desire to address my re- 
marks to the general principles and equities of the bill rather than to its specific 
details. The vote to-day upon the motion of the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
Cummiugs), being 145 yeas to 76 nays, though falling short of the requisite two- 
thirds necessary to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, would seem to in- 
dicate its final passage by a majority vote when reached in its regular order. 

An analysis of this vote shows it to be somewhat peculiar. Among the yeas 
are found one hundred and twenty Republicans and twenty-five Democrats ; among 
the nays are seventy-five Democrats and one Republican. Of the yeas only two, 
Mr. Morgan, of Missouri, and Mr. Turner, of Kentucky, come from Southern 
States, while of the nays, one, Mr, Cox, of Ohio, comes from a Northern State. 
These political and sectional characteristics, however, only apply to the House, 
because it will be remembered that while both Republican and Democratic Houses 
have passed this bill heretofore, a Republican Senate has steadily refused to pass 
it, and the standard objection to it has been that it would create a great draught 
upon the Treasury. 

Sir, when these pensions were earned, when the country rocked in the great 
storm of rebellion, draughts upon the Treasury were not so much thought of then, 
though they came at the rate of $1,000,000 per day. The draught at that time 
was upon the soldier, upon his patriotism, his heroism, his strength, his life. If 
he would only go to the front, leave all he held dear behind, stand between us and 
danger, though he fell on the field or became diseased or disabled, his name should 
be held in everlasting remembrance, and his wife and little ones be tenderly cared 
for. These were the assurances repeated in a thousand different forms by which 
we induced the soldier to march out to battle. Now we are told that this is all 
' sentiment.' Yes, sir, it is sentiment ; a kind of sentiment which broke down 
health, tore away limbs, put out life ; a sentiment which we may have forgotten, 
but which the soldier remembers when, pinched by want, he gathers his little 



62 

family about him and counts over again what is justly his due from the Govern- 
ment; a sentiment he remembers when, day by day, month by month, year by 
year, through pain and suffering which never cease, he drags a deceased and mu- 
tilated body on toward the darkness of the grave ; and, though he forgets it there, 
it will spring into life again in the memory of his children ! 

Mr. Speaker, what a mockery ! to lead the boy to the father's grave which we 
tenderly strew with flowers in the spring time, while he remembers that all 
through the winter we have grudgingly withheld the small pittance due to mother 
and sisters. Sir, is this the lesson of patriotism and this the measure of perform- 
ance which we propose to hold out in the future, when we want soldiers again ? 
Ah, sir, better ; far better so act that while the son recounts the deeds of the 
father he shall at the same time remember the magnanimity of the Government, 
and thus the love of country be planted so deep in the hearts of the people that a 
feeling of attachment and reverence shall grow up which will make our country 
and its institutions impregnable. 

But we are told that this will cost $7,000,000, and may cost $10,000,000. Very 
likely. But supposing it is justly due the soldier; what then? It costs nearly 
$300,000,000 annually to run the Government. Shall we therefore cease appro- 
priating ? We pay annual pensions now to the amount of $30,000,000. Why not 
strike off $10,000,000 or $15,000,000 from these and save the money ? We could 
do it just as honorably, just as fairly, and I think just as legally as we can with- 
hold the sums actually due upon these arrearages. We appropriate annually 
$10,000,000 to our Navy, $33,000,000 to our postal service, from $7,000,000 to 
$10,000,000 for the improvement of rivers and harbors ; but everybody is in- 
terested in these, while only the old soldier and his wife and children are interested 
in this. These soldiers are poor and humble and widely separated. They com- 
bined for the defense of the country, but they cannot combine to press this claim 
for the remnant of their dues. Therefore it is safe to vote in the negative and 
win a reputation for 'economy, for independence of judgment and sound and 
prudent statesmanship, relieved of all nonsense and sentiment ! Sir, I doubt not 
that men have voted against this bill heretofore really believing themselves to be 
the bravest of the brave. 

Ah, sir, it is becoming so easy to be brave when the rights of the humble or 
the liberties of the lowly are to be given away ! But it is not so easy when or- 
ganized wealth and power sweep up and arrogantly demand our votes. 

But I said I wanted to speak of the general principles of this bill. What are 
they? One of them is this: If a soldier, his wife, or children, draw a pension at 
all, it must be for some cause known to the pension laws. Now, what are these 
causes ? 

1. Death in the military service. 

2. Discharge from the service on account of wounds or injuries received or 
disease contracted in the service and in the line of duty. 

3. The subsequent development of disease by which the soldier is incapacitated 
from labor, provided the disease is traceable and due to the military service of 
the United States. 

Before he can procure a pension at all he must bring himself within one of these 
classes, and he must do it under the forms and past all the guards and guarantees 



63 

which the Government has set up for the detection of fraudulent claims for pen- 
sion. 

To this end all technical tests, whether military, medical or legal, must be 
folly complied with. Now, if through all these processes, bristling with techni- 
calities and difficulties, the fact appears, whether it be death, disability, or disease 
contracted in the service, or the subsequent development of disease contracted in 
the service incapacitating the soldier for labor, then out of the fact comes the pen- 
sion, as effect follows cause. 

The essence of the whole matter is the fact, and not the machinery nor the time 
nor any of the appliances necessary to establish it. One soldier may be fortunate, 
and all record evidence be at hand to establish his case in a day, while another, 
perhaps disabled on the same day and in a similar manner, may, without any fault 
of his, require months, and even years, to establish his claim, and may be 
subjected to great trouble and expense in so doing. jSTow, will it be claimed for a 
moment that, while the Government promptly pays the fortunate soldiers, it 
should seek to make money out of the unfortunate one, when perhaps both fought 
on the same field ; but in the one case the records were regularly returned to the 
Surgeon-General's office, while in the other they were captured or destroyed? Do 
gentlemen think it quite the thing to save money by these methods ? And shall 
.a great government do this mean thing in the name of ' economy ' and not call it 
by its true name, downright robbery ? 

There are other cases where men, knowing themselves to be entitled to pensions, 
but being in comfortable circumstances and possessing full-souled patriotism, have 
forborne applying for their jusu dues, while the Government has enjoyed the ben- 
efit in the mean time, who, by reverse of fortune or broken health, find themselves 
compelled at last to apply for a pension ; and having established their right to it 
under all the requirements of law, does the Government propose, can the Govern- 
ment afford, to punish and discourage this sort of magnamity by meanly with- 
holding a portion of the pension so found to be due ?" 

The first evidence the Democrats gave of friendship to the 
Union soldier four years ago, when they got control of the House 
of Kepresentatives, was to discharge every Union soldier who had 
been np to that time an employee of the House, and most of them 
were one-armed soldiers, too. How are you, Soldier's Friend ? 



PART V. 



Southekn War Claims. 
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provides : 

" Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in 
suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the 
United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred 
in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall 
be held illegal and void." 

How have the Democratic House of Eepresentatives respected and 
construed this provision of the Constitution ? A few brief illus- 
trations will serve to show. In a speech in the House on the 1st 
of May, 1878, by the Hon. Philip C. Hayes, of Illinois, he gives an 
enumeration of the bills introduced for the payment of Southern 
War Claims in the Forty-fifth Congress up to March 18, 1878, with 
name of claimant, cause of claim and amount in each case, rang- 
ing from ten thousand up to and over two hundred thousand dol- 
lars. They are more than four hundred in number, and cannot be 
enumerated in the space I have. The grand total is two hundred 
and five million dollars. The estimate from the book of Judge 
Barclay, the Southern gentleman who took upon himself the task 
of hunting up and formulating all Southern Claims is three hun- 
dred million dollars in private claims; and, recollect, this leaves in 
reserve the contemplated payment for slaves. 

In this speech Mr. Hayes quotes thus from the Mobile (Ala- 
bama) Register — 

" "Was the letter written by Mr. Tilden a short time before the election, saying 
he would veto any bill proposed to pay Southern War Claims. 

The writing of this letter was Mr. Tilden's great crime, for which the Southern 
people will never forgive him. His sad fate will doubtless be a warning to all 
future aspirants for the Presidency, who expect to be elected to that office by the 
aid of Southern Democratic votes. The fact is, no Democrat can be elected Presi- 
dent without the votes of the ' solid South,' and while the ' solid South' may not 
ask a pledge in favor of paying Southern claims, it will hereafter support no one 
who is pledged against such payment. And, Mr. Speaker, what I have said in re- 
gard to aspirants for the Presidency can be said with equal truth in regard to the 
aspirant for any office at the South. No man can be elected to any office in that 
section who dares to proclaim himself opposed to paying these Southern claims. 



65 ' 

Men who expect to succeed politically must be in harmony with their people in 
this respect," 

arid continues his quotation from Judge Bartley's pamphlet, as 
follows : 

" This fact is clearly understood by gentlemen from the South in this House, 
and it is because they understand it so clearly that, they are so earnest and per- 
sistent in their efforts to secure the payment of these claims. In pushing these 
claims these gentlemen are only carrrying out the wishes, I may say the demands, 
of their constituents, who are not only determined that these claims shall be paid, 
but who urge their payment on the ground of justice to themselves. They hold 
to the idea that the Government is under obligation to pay them. They go so far 
as to declare that the claims for captured and abandoned property and for private 
property taken by the Union Army in the way of supplies, constitute a part of the 
war debt of the nation. Indeed, Judge Bartley, whose little pamphlet was dis- 
tributed so freely among members of this body a few days ago, argues that the 
property taken for the subsistence of the Union Army saved the Government from 
raising money on the sale of its bonds in the sums represented by the value of the 
property seized and used, and that the claims for the payment for this property 
are as just and as valid a lien upon the Treasury as the bonded debt itself. In fact 
he thinks they should take precedence of the bonded debt in equity, because that 
debt draws interest while the claims do not. The Judge presents his case in the 
strongest light possible and closes his pamphlet of twenty pages with the following 
significant paragraph : 

The foregoing views are expressed on mature consideration from a sense of duty 
to several hundred citizens of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, repre- 
sented by the undersigned as their counsel. The positions assumed can and will 
be maintained and cannot be successfully controverted in or out of Congress. If 
the plain language used is expressive of some feeling, it arises simply from a deep 
sense of the wrong and injustice done to injured parties, and is not intended to be 
discourteous, but in all due deference and respectful regard for the public author- 
ities. 

Now, sir, it would be well to note this language carefully. Judge Bartley says 
he is working ' from a sense of duty to several hundred citizens ' of the South 
who are pushing their claims with all the vigor and determination possible. He 
and his clients have taken a position that ' can and will be maintained and cannot 
be successfully controverted in or out of Congress.' He apologizes for the strong 
language used by saying that ' it arises simply from a deep sense of wrong and 
injustice done to injured parties.' He advocates the idea that the Government is in 
duty bound to pay these claims and that it has greatly wronged these claimants 
in not paying them long ago. And, sir, this same idea is advocated by thousands 
of southern men to-day. Only a few days ago I received a pamphlet written by 
Dr. J. F. Foard, of North Carolina, in which the writer discusses this subject at 
some length, declaring that the Government should pay these claims as a matter of 
justice and right. After devoting several pages to setting forth the losses sus- 
tained by the southern people, he uses these words : ' The easiest and best way to 
heal them ' — the wounds made by the war — ' is to compensate those who lost so 
much in the conflict.' 

5 



m 



In a subsequent chapter he says 



Let us go at this work promptly, earnestly and honestly, tbat it may be as a 
monument of truth and justice, erected in the hearts of our children to remind 
them of the importance of national honor, peace and good will. 

The last page of his book contains the following, which will be read with great 
interest, especially by the Union men of the North : 

That co-operative action be had in this matter, a form of a memorial to Congress 
is appended to these pages. Let every one who feels an interest in the great work 
copy and obtain the signatures of his neighbors to it, and inclose it to one of our 
Senators or Representatives in Congress as early as practicable, and urge its' 
adoption : 

Form of a memorial to Congress. 

State of , 

County of , , 187 . 

To the honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives 

of the United Stales in Congress assembled: 

We, the citizens of the United States, most respectfully petition your honorable 
bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section of the United States 
may be paid for all their property destroyed for them by the governments and 
armies of both sides during the late war between the States, in bonds bearing 3 per 
cent, interest per annum, maturing within the next hundred years. 

And we also petition that all soldiers, or their legal representatives, of both 
armies and every section, be paid in bonds or public lands for their lost time, limbs, 
and lives, while engaged in the late unfortunate civil conflict. And we will ever 
pray, <fcc. 

The speech will be found entire in the Congressional Record 
of May 3, 1878, and will well repay perusal. 



PART VI. 



The Solid South. — How it was made solid for the Demo- 
cratic Party, and its real attitude now towards the 
Federal Union. 

By the first article of the Constitution the basis of representa- 
tion in the popular branch of Congress (House of Representatives) 
was thus fixed : 

" Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective 
Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free per- 
sons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians 
not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made 
within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States 
and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall b} T 
law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such 
enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to 
choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, 
Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware 
one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and 
Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive 
authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ; 
and shall have the sole power of impeachment." 

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth 
declared who were citizens of the United States, and the Fifteenth 
Amendment enfranchised the then recently emancipated slaves of 
the sixteen slave States, and declared the fundamental law on the 
right of suffrage and its exercise. 

Here are the amendments referred to: 
"ARTICLE XIII. 

Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for 
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the 
United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis- 
lation. 

ARTICLE XIV. 

Sec 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State in 
which they reside. 



68 

ARTICLE XV. 

Sec. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude. 

Sec 2. The Congress shall have "power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation." 

The estimated number of slaves in the South was four millions. 
Under the Constitution, as it stood before the amendments, three- 
fifths, or two million four hundred thousand of these were counted 
in, making up the basis of Congressional representation, and one 
million six hundred thousand were excluded. Under the amend- 
ments quoted this one million six hundred thousand were added to 
the basis of representation. The South by this change gained 
thirty-eight members of Congress, and a like number of electoral 
votes in the College of Presidential Electors. 

The colored people were, and are to-day, Republicans, and when 
they were allowed to vote, voted that ticket, as it was most natural 
that they should. The men who had kept them in bondage — 
slavery of body, soul and mind ; slavery, that same fragrant plant 
that flourished around the hearth of Abraham and made Sarah a 
lady; slavery, that, except in finding a ' ' deeper deep " of meanness 
and cruelty, never changed its character until the day when the 
second and better Abraham (Lincoln) struck it a blow that killed 
it forever — these men that fought four years to establish a new 
government, a new nation, with slavery for its corner-stone, the 
colored people of the South knew to be their enemies ; and they 
know as well that these same men were Democrats, and formed not 
a wing, but the greafc centre of the Democratic Party. These same 
emancipated American citizens know that the men of the North 
who had reddened the green grass of the South with their best 
blood, and spent millions, thousands of millions of dollars to main- 
tain the Union and abolish slavery, were their friends, and that 
these formed the Republican party, centre and both wings. 
Where, then, could the blacks cast their votes except with the Re- 
publican party ? 

As a consequence of this change, the States of Arkansas, Louisi- 
ana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina became 
positive and assured Republican States. They were Republican in 
1868, in 1870, in 1872 and partially so in 1874; and in 1876 the 
States of Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida were as certainly 
and as honestly Republican as they were in 1868 and 1872; but 
the Democratic programme of stamping out Republicanism in the 
South, and especially what the Southern Rebels boasted then, and 
boast now of, their success in the project of preventing the negro 
from ever more voting, and in time reducing him to what these 
inhuman wretches called his normal condition, so that he should 
be a slave de facto, though he was not, and could not be de jure, 
had not then been consummated. That consummation remained 



69 

for the well intended, but weak policy of " conciliation " that 
turned over the honestly chosen Governments of Louisiana and 
South Carolina to Nichols and Wade Hampton, and makes the 
South solid to-day for the Democratic Union Soldier of Gettysburg 
and the Wilderness, who has endorsed all the infamy that has fol- 
lowed, as well as the threats of these same rebels for the future, 
including the latest utterances of Jefferson Davis, that the " Con- 
federacy still exists," by handing over his well tried sword, hilt 
foremost, to Wade Hampton and Boss Kelly, in the Cincinnati 
Convention. 

HOW THE SOUTH WAS MADE SOLID. 

The system of terrorism in Mississippi began in 1875, by a cam- 
paign of slaughter, deliberate murder, house-burning and abuse of 
women ; stifling not only free speech on political topics, but all 
speech from the poor persecuted negro, even the wives and children 
who mourned the death of the husband and father murdered 
before their eyes. 

The bloody history of that year in Mississippi, which I have now 
before me, is too shocking to repeat. It finds no parallel in history, 
Pagan, Mohammedan or Christian. No wonder that the brave 
and big-hearted Phil. Sheridan classed such wretches as assassins 
and banditti. 

Dixon, himself a leading Democrat, for daring to be 60 independ- 
ent as to differ with these shot gun, red-shirted night riders, was 
cruelly and brutally murdered at noonday, in the streets of Yazoo, 
and Barksdale, his cowardly murderer, was never even indicted for 
the crime. He was applauded for it by the Democratic newspapers 
of Mississippi, and by many outside of that State. 

The story of the Chisholm massacre — the bloody tragedy involv- 
ing the willful, deliberate [and premeditated murder of a father, 
daughter and infant son, and the friend of another land, McLellan, 
who was trying to save the children — has been read at, every fire- 
side of the North. I will not attempt to repeat it here. I must 
not, however, deprive the reader of what the orator of the Empire 
State, and the orator of America, said of it less than a year ago in 
a speech that will favorably compare with the best efforts of Peel, 
O'Connell and Tom Corwin, the three greatest popular orators of 
modern times. In his great speech at Cooper Institute, on the 
night of the 21st of October last (1879), William M. Evarts thus 
gives the lessons from the Chisholm tragedy: 

" It does not take much reasoning or much explanation to prove to the Ameri- 
can people that this is the condition of the Southern suffrage. Some very preg- 
nant and very instructive examples have occurred to show, as with a blaze of 
light, to the American people what the condition of the suffrage is. I do not 
allude to the murder of Chisholm for the tragic traits of that occurrence. I have 
no desire to stir up your feelings to mutiny and rage by depicting the action of 
the little boy and the girl throwing their frail bodies forward as a shield to pro- 
tect their father's breast from the murderous fire of twenty or thirty men. I ask 



70 

your attention to it as evidence of its political character, of its political feature? — 
as expressing the opinions of and being adopted by the community in which it 
was perpetrated. Chisholm said with his last breath, ■ I die for my country, and 
because I would be a freeman and a Republican.' [Applause.] 

" In time of war we are willing to die for our country, that we may be freemen 
and Republicans. The horrors of war and violence against the law we can en- 
dure, but the horrors of peace and the violence to the majesty of laws we cannot, 
and we will not endure. [Great applause.] The North, just and patient, waited 
in order to see whether any movement would be made to punish that crime, and 
by the example of that punishment give security to other people down there who 
want to be freemen and Republicans. Two years passed without a trial. The 
trial has now been had. This law-abiding people always wait the result, and the 
result was that, with a just judge and a faithful prosecuting officer and a jury, the 
criminals were acquitted as having' done nothing that the community wishes to 
see punished. And, strange to say, it is made a subject of some credit, as they 
think, to the community that the jury was not packed. If the jury had heen 
packed they might have said, ' That does not represent the sentiments of the 
vicinage, the people of the county or the people of the State.' But it was not 
packed ; it was a fair representation of the character, the opinions, wishes and 
purposes of that community. And so it was ; and how many men do you think, 
down there, can have a free suffrage — not when individual violence attacks them, 
but when that individual violence is not resisted, is not resented, is not punished 
by the laws or the people who administer the laws ? Mark how this wicked ter- 
rorism, that began by proscribing the opposite party, makes its progress to dis- 
couraging, pursuing and punishing dissent and independence in the party itself. 
In Yazoo County a citizen that was crowned with honor for his persecution of Re- 
publicans — that had received a silver pitcher from his grateful fellow-citizens for 
what he did for them in that direction — becomes an independent Democrat, and 
is slain because discords cannot be allowed in that party. And thus, step by 
step, wherever the law does not prevail, wherever reason and conscience and 
equality have their voice stifled, there is nothing left for that community but each 
progressive stage of terror, horror, sycophancy and abject submission, till at 
length the very bonds of the cohesion of society were threatened, and humanity 
that is trampled on finds no recourse but in a violent resistance — covering with 
horrors and with blood communities which have been so wicked as to foster 
violence, and which roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongues. [Applause.] 

" Now, in South Carolina, Mr. Brice was killed in trying to get up a Republi- 
can meeting. The man was tried. It is to be hoped he will be convicted, and it 
is said there is some assurance that it may turn out so if the Northern people 
don't express their sentiments too loudly on that subject. "Well, the South Caro- 
lina gentlemen appear to wish to do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. 
We will do everything in our power to assist them ; but in the trials that the 
Government undertook to prosecute in South Carolina for interference with the 
Civil Rights bill — with that clause of the Constitution and the laws passed in pur- 
suance of it which undertake to save people from proscription and violence on 
account of race, color or previous condition of servitude — the law was parried, 
convictions were prevented, and the power of the United States put at naught by 
the evidence — which was true, too — that they were not denied these rights be- 



71 

cause they were colored men, but because they were Republicans [applause] ; and 
the Constitution and laws are powerless to prevent that harrying of Republicans, 
although it can prevent the harrying of colored men as colored men. Now the 
suffrage, gentlemen, as the life of our institutions, is not a mere deposit of votes. 
The suffrage is a live institution — it is a free and intelligent power in the country, 
it is the greatest educator of the people, it is the greatest conciliator of the people 
to obedience to the laws that a community ever had. What becomes of it in the 
Southern States ? Are they being educated to freedom ? Are they being concili- 
ated to the laws by that method of suffrage ? By no means. It is a substitution 
of violence and of terror, and the suffrage decays. A dearth of free schools, a 
desuetude of free speech and the decay of free suffrage go hand in hand ; and if 
these people will save their own suffrage from being subjugated by this dead mass 
of violent and despotic suffrage, they must stir themselves to see that free 
schools, free speech and free suffrage shall pervade every corner of this land. 
[Applause.] 

" The same reasons and arguments are used that were used to bind the slave- 
holders together against the freemen of the North — State rights that prevents 
legal interference, and State pride that won't tolerate discussion ; and Mr. Toombs 
was right when he said that he would call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill. 
It is true that he could call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill as well as in 
their cabins in the South, and they would answer him as much in one place as in 
the other. So I warn you now that you do not allow the suffrage to be subju- 
gated ; for if it is subjugated in New York City, it will be in the other great cities 
of the land, and so, disunited and repressed, the people will have no voice to 
make the same kind of resistance to one subjugation that they made before. 
[Cheers.] It is not that I fear the triumph of this subjugation, but I deprecate 
the strife and the calamity of the struggle. We can bear and we can redress this 
evil, but we cannot submit to it. We cannot foster it and we cannot support it ; 
and we might bear it with better patience if the people of this country had noth- 
ing to do but attend to these political questions. But we have a great many 
things to do. We have our manufactures, our agriculture, our commerce. We 
have the fostering and advancement of enterprise, of religion, of civilization, and 
we have our place among the nations of the world if we will step forward and 
take it. [Applause.] And we do not intend to be kept forever from these pur- 
suits by having forced upon us, in a clear sky, these thunderbolts and threaten- 
ings of danger in the Southern heavens. [Applause.] Look at the single State 
of Mississippi. It may not be worth our while to consider the ruin and disaster 
of this single State ; but, gentlemen, a hot box may stop a whole train, and we do 
not intend that Mississippi shall act as a hot box to stop the progress of this 
nation." [Laughter and applause.] 

" Now look on that picture and then on this." Hear the states- 
man and great lawyer talk and then witness the well paired twins, 
the demagogue and the murderer (The Herald speaking for Barks- 
dale) exhibit themselves. 



72 



A REBEL'S SPEECH AT YAZOO. 

SINGLETON, THE CONGRESSMAN, PUBLICLY APPLAUDS THE KILLING OF DIXON FOR 
POLITICAL CONVICTIONS — THE AUDIENCE WILD WITH DELIGHT. 

[By Telegraph to the Tribune.] 
Washington, Nov. 3. — Two or three weeks ago the announcement was received 
in a private letter from Yazoo that Representative Singleton, of Mississippi, justi- 
fied the murder of Dixon by Barksdale, in a speech at Yazoo on the 11th of Octo- 
ber. Up to this time no report of the speech has been received here. Probably 
no report has been printed. The following from The Yazoo Herald, however, fully 
confirms the fact of the speech, and indicates that at Yazoo, at least, a defence of 
Dixon's murderers is esteemed a vindication of the Democratic party. 

His defence of the people who participated in the affair which occurred here on 
the 25th of July last, was manly, just and complete ; and at this point the build- 
ing fairly shook with the earthquake shout of applause that greeted him. He had 
struck the popular heart on the right key and it responded with the music of sym- 
pathy and appreciation. His speech was an able and eloquent vindication of the 
Democratic party, and it carried conviction to the minds of all who heard it, that 
he was eminently worthy of the respect and confidence of the people. 

Mr. Singleton is best known to fame by his declaration in Congress two years 
ago, that he held the allegiance due to the State of Mississippi higher than that 
due to the United States. 

Mr. Singleton was followed, at the meeting, by Major Ethel Barksdale, name- 
sake and uncle of the Dixon murderer, and next to Jefferson Davis the most pro- 
minent candidate for the United States Senate to succeed Senator Bruce. Just 
what Major Barksdale said of the Dixon murder is not reported. Its tenor may 
be gathered sufficiently from the following comment by The Yazoo Herald : 

He blistered from head to foot the miserable slanderers who thought it not un- 
worthy of themselves to fill the Northern Republican press with false accounts of 
the affair which happened here on the memorable July day, 1879, and of the 
character of the men who composed that mob, as they were pleased to style it, 
that met here for a purpose which the best people in the land now indorse since 
they have been put into possession of the real facts in the case. The applause 
that welled up from the body of the great audience at these words showed how 
much in sympathy they were with the speaker." 

Well might Mr. Evarts, looking at the condition of the country, 
and the character of the men who were seeking to gain control of 
its government, conclude his eloquent and patriotic speech as he 
did, thus: 

" NO DEMOCRATIC PARTY REALLY LEFT. 
But really one must come to this conclusion, that there is no Democratic party 
at all ; that the only party in this country — and I regret to say it — that has a 
united counsel, a unity of purpose, a unity of future plans of its existence, a reason 
for that existence, and a rational appeal to the country to continue it in power, is 
the Republican party. [Applause.] I regret this very much. I regret it, I say 
because there should always be two great parties, sincere, strenuous rivals in the 
effort to serve the country, and in their appeals to the support of the country. 
But there is no Democratic party. Solon Chase ran away with it in Maine , 
General Butler in Massachusetts, Kearney in California [laughter] ; it is beaten in 



73 

Ohio [cheers] ; it is divided in New York. [Renewed cheers.] Why, where is 
the Democratic party ? The last sign of death is that it has not been able to 
stand, even with the cohesion of public plunder divided among its members. 
[Laughter.] 

What are their principles ? What do they profess ? They do not intend even 
to have a Democratic candidate for the Presidency next year for the ensuing term. 
The only candidate that is proposed is the one who lias had the last term. 
[Laughter.] What do you think of carrying on a great country like this four 
years after 1880 on no more living, progressive, vivifying and exalting program- 
me than that ' Fraud cannot be condoned ' [laughter] after four years of medita- 
tion on that subject ? 

Now, when I remember the Democratic party as it used to be ; when I remem- 
ber how it defended the right of suffrage for the foreigner, for the poor, for the 
people ; how it was ever the champion of its extension, of its protection ; when I 
look upon what that party did for the country, and remember its brave face 
toward foreign nations and its willingness that the greatest power on earth should 
be engaged by us in war rather than that a poor sailor should be oppressed upon 
the high seas; and as I remember its stolid and cruel indifference to the oppres- 
sion of millions of our countrymen on land, then I know what it has done for the 
name of free institutions; how it has enlarged our category ; how it has maintained 
our flag; how it has done everything manfully — up to a certain point, however 
much others may have differed from them as to their duty to our country and their 
duty to humanity. 

I may say, even in another sense, that there is no Democratic party. Why, 
look at their candidates ! So unwilling are they to present themselves in their 
true character that they borrow flag candidates to run out at the masthead as de- 
coys. The masked candidates conceal their front. They did not dare to make a 
headway in 18*72, except under the mask of Horace Greely, and they must run up 
in Massachusetts the honored name of Charles Francis Adams ; in New York they 
take from us Robinson and Bigelow ; in Ohio, Ewing. Why, have they no loyal, 
pure men, that went through the war, shoulder to shoulder with Republicans, 
statesmen since the war, true to every principle of honor and generosity in politics? 
Why don't they put up some distinguished citizen that belongs to them to ask for 
the suffrages of their countrymen ? It is because their heart will not allow them 
to do it; but they have got decoy flags that they can haul down, and masks that 
they can take off after the battle. 

Now, gentlemen, when we contrast the Democratic party of the past with the 
Democratic party of the present, how does it stand the contrast ? How tragic 
has been its fate ! We are told in the Bible of the hard fate of a strong man who 
fled from a lion, and a bear met him, and he leaned his hand against a wall and a 
serpent stung him. As with this strong man so it is with the Democratic party. 
Fleeing from the lion of Northern loyalty it falls under the feet or into the em- 
brace of the South, with its cruel claims, and leaning its hand against the strong 
wall of the Democracy of New York the serpent of Tildenism bit it [laughter]. I 
regret extremely that the claims of Southern statesmen and the estrangement of 
the Southern people, subjects so distasteful to a sober, satisfied and industrious 
people, should be forced again to the front. An earnest general concentration of 
public opinion over all the rest of the country must put down this agitation by 






74 

making it unprofitable in honor or prosperity to any political party, and showing 
that it disturbs the public peace. We must not be dragged through another 
twenty years of unequal contest, and we need not if we exercise our power. It 
is the duty of every honest American citizen to put the true interests of the country, 
so vast, so manifold, into the hands of honest statesmen who love peace and will 
pursue righteousness [Applause]. "Without much delay this great people shall 
' put on again its native hue of resolution and address itself to enterprises of great 
pith and moment.' " [Loud applause.] 

Louisiana. 

I must content myself with giving some facts taken from the 
records and published reports of committees of Congress, during 
the investigations of 1876-7, without comment. They need none 
from me. 

Here are the instructions under which the Democratic ! ! clubs 
acted. The assassins construed these instructions liberally. 

" CIRCULAR OF INSTRUCTIONS TO DEMOCRATIC CLUBS. 

The following circular of instructions to Democratic clubs was issued about 
the time of the Democratic convention at Baton Rouge. It was published by the 
Republican of August 5th,- and is reproduced as furnishing the key to the bloody 
events of the campaign just closed : 

[Confidential.] 
Rooms Democratic Conservative State Central Committee, ) 
Room No. 1 , ovee Cotton Exchange, New Orleans, >• 

. , 18V— . ) 

" Dear Sir, — In writing to you on the subject of the coming election we are 
animated by the same earnest desire which you, no doubt, feel to wrest the gov- 
ernmeut of the State from the hands of the vandals who have for so long a time 
prostituted their usurped powers to strike down our liberties and destroy our 
prosperity. Every effort which we have made so far to shake off this fearful 
burden of Radical rule has failed. Another opportunity is offered us to rid our- 
selves of an evil which has become intolerable. To accomplish this object all 
Conservative citizens of this State should unite in a solid, compact body, and not 
only use every effort themselves, but urge upon every one within the range of 
their influence, to an earnest active participation in the present campaign, and to 
permit no local dissensions to distract them from the great work, which is the 
redemption of our State. No great object, such a we have in view, can be accom- 
plished without zealous, persistent, vigilant and united action. Each man must 
feel that he has a mission, and that the result may depend upon his individual 
efforts ; no one must imagine that the work will be done by some one else. All 
have an equal interest and all must contribute. This can only be effected by or- 
ganization in each parish ; organization so thorough and so complete as to embrace 
within it every honest man. All must be made to understand that whosoever is 
not for us is against us ; that there can be no neutrality when such vital interests 
are at stake ; that the responsibility of failure will rest upon those who are idle, 
discontented, or captious. Individual ambition, personal aspirations, and unworthy 
prejudices must be laid aside, so that, moved by a common patriotic impulse, all 
may be united for the common good. 



75 

As the central organization of the State, and upon which the people have con- 
ferred all the power we possess, we desire to propose, for the consideration of 
yourself and the Democratic-Conservative citizens of your parish, the character 
and working of such organizations as we think can be made effectual to achieve 
victory in the coming canvass. 

First. — We suggest that your Executive Committee shall divide the parish into 
districts, by sections or townships, as you may deem best, to each of which there 
shall be assigned a director or directors, whose duty it shall be to canvass his or 
their district, and report to the parish committee the number and the names of 
those who inhabit it, dividing them into their political distinctions. 

Second. — We recommend that in conversations with each other no gloomy fore- 
bodings shall be indulged in, and that the result of the coming election shall be 
spoken of as a foregone conclusion, as we have the means of carrying the election, 
and intend to use them. But be careful to say and do nothing that can be construed 
into a threat or intimidation of any character. Yon cannot convince a negro's 
reason, but you can impress him by positive statements continually repeated. 

Third. — We recommend that clubs shall be formed in different sections of the 
parish, of which there shall be frequent meetings, and as often as may be conveni- 
ent a central meeting of all the clubs. That occasionally the ward clubs should form 
at their several places of meeting, and proceed thence on horseback to the central rende- 
vous. Such meetings would tend to produce harmony, besides being an occasion for 
amusement and interesting ceremonies. Proceedings of this character would impress 
the negroes with a sense of your united strength. They have been taught that they 
outnumber you ; such meetings would convince them of their error. 

Fourth. — It is of the last importance that every effort should be made to pre- 
vent fraudulent registration and repeating on the day of election. To accomplish 
that object, gentlemen of known integrity should be assigned carefully and con- 
stantly to watch the registration and to make affidavits concerning all irregulari- 
ties or fraud. On the day of election several gentlemen should attend each polling 
precinct, and at the close of the day make a sworn return of the result, and forward 
the same to the State Central Committee, to be used as a check against fraudulent 
returns. This, together with the measures suggested in the first paragraph of 
this circular, will, to a great extent, insure a fair election. 

Fifth. — We recommend that the names of the officers of each club and the 
numerical strength of the clubs shall be forwarded to this committee as soon as 
possible. 

Sixth. — We recommend that on the day of the election, at each polling place, 
there shall be affidavits prepared to the effect that there has been no intimidation, 
and no disturbance on account of any effort by the Democratic Conservative 
party, to prevent any one from voting on account of ' race, color, or previous 
condition of servitude.' Should there be any disturbance, the affidavits made 
subsequently thereto should set forth its cause and origin. 

Seventh. — We recommend that at every political meeting of the opposite party 
several gentlemen should be present and take notes of tlxe proceedings, and especially 
of any threats on their part against the white people, or of any appeal, made to 
the negroes by any white man of an incendiary character. 

By adopting the preceding suggestions our party will have a thorough organiza- 
tion, all the members of which will be knit together for a common object, and will 



76 

thus have a disciplined political body, moving with a fixed purpose over ground 
marked out and well known to certain victory. There are some who will object to 
this plan as involving much trouble. But recollect that nothing great can be ac- 
complished without trouble, and that our object is to wrest the government of the 
State of Louisiana from an alien band of robbers, and restore it once more to the 
hands of her own people ; to cause intelligence and virtue to resume their proper 
functions, and to eliminate from the body politic the effects produced by ignorance 
and vice. This committee pledges itself to an earnest, unselfish, and patriotic co- 
operation with each and every parish in the State to compass the great end. 

In conclusion, we suggest that at least two delegates from each parish, properly 
accredited by their respective parish committees, should come to New Orleans and 
remain during the session of the Returning Board, to aid, with their knowledge 
of facts, the State Central Committee in preventing fraudulent returns by that 
board. 

I. W. PATTON, President. 
P. J. Sullivan, Secretary." 

And here is the harvest of death massed from obedience to these 
instructions : 

"HISTORY OF FORMER ELECTIONS IN LOUISIANA. 

For ten years violence, bloodshed, and murder have been habitually resorted to 
in Louisiana by the Democrats as a means of influencing elections. 

In that time there have been ten great butcheries or massacres for political 
reasons. "We will enumerate them and give the proof: 

First. — In 1866, the massacre at Mechanics' Institute, in which over two hun- 
dred Republicans were killed in the streets and in that building. (See the Shella- 
barger Report to the House.) 

Second. — In 1868, the St. Landry Parish massacre, during which from two to 
three hundred colored people were killed. 

Third. — The Bossier Parish massacre, during which over two hundred colored 
people were killed. 

Fourth. — The Caddo Parish massacre, in "which over forty colored people were 
killed. 

Fifth. — The St. Bernard Parish massacre, in which over one hundred colored 
people were killed. 

Sixth. — The Orleans Parish massacres, in which over sixty persons were 
killed. 

Seventh. — The St. Mary Parish massacre, in which the sheriff and parish 
judge, both Republicans, were publicly assassinated. (See the Stephenson Report 
to the House.) 

Eighth. — In 18*73, the Grant Parish massacre, in which over one hundred colored 
persons were killed. (See the Hoar Report to the House.) 

Ninth. — In 1874, the Coushatta massacre, in which four persons were killed. 
(See the Hoar Report to the House.) 

in 1876. 

Tenth. — In 1876, the Mount Pleasant massacre, in which over twenty persons 
were killed and wounded. (See testimony before Senator Howe's committee.) 



77 

Besides these massacres, the following prominent and active Republicans were 
assassinated during the same year and immediately prior to it : 

In East Feliciana, John Gair, ex-Member of the House of Representatives, shot 
to death. 

In Ouachita, Dr. B. H. Dinkgrave, Eaton Logwood and Henry Pinkston shot 
to death. 

In Baton Rouge, William Y. Payne dragged by horses and shot to death. 

In West Feliciana, Gilbert Carter aud Isaac Mitchell shot to death. 

In Red River, Senator Twitchell shot and mutilated and his brother-in-law, Mr. 
King, shot to death. 

These murders have invariably been perpetrated immediately or almost imme- 
diately before a political campaign, or in the midst of it. Their result has also 
invariably been, by the fear, insecurity and terror occasioned thereby among 
Republicans, to largely decrease the Republican vote and as largely increase the 
Democratic vote. In 1868 the result was to drive from the polls about 50,000 
Republican voters. 

This systematic resort to violence and murder for political ends by the Demo- 
crats was the occasion of the enactment of the election law of 1870. 

ELECTION LAW. 

The object of that law was to create a tribunal which should have the authority, 
whenever an election in any precincts or parishes of the State had been rendered 
null by such violence and intimidation, to ascertain and declare that nullity, and 
to reject and refuse to count the so-called votes polled under the reign of such 
terror. 

By this law five persons are made the returning officers for all elections in the 
State, a majority of whom constitute a quorum with power to act. Th ere are no 
returns, and can be none, of any election in Louisiana but the returns which these 
officers make. The statements made by the Commissioners of Election who pre- 
side at the polls are not returns, nor are the statements of the parish supervisor, 
who consolidates the statements of the Commissioner, returns. These statements 
are simply the official and sworn evidence of the officers conducting the elections, 
which are sent up to the returning officers. These returning officers receive 
them, count them, compile them and canvass them, and make the final and only 
official account of the vote, and the final and only certificate of the result of that 
vote, which is called the return. In cases where violence and intimidation have 
rendered the election null, these returning officers are empowered by the law to 
inquire into and determine the results of such violence and intimidation, and if 
the same have nullified the election at any poll or precinct, to ascertain and de- 
clare that nullity, and when such nullity has been ascertained, the law commands 
them to reject and refuse to count the votes so made null and void. 

THE CONSPIRACY. 

It is true, and it is proven, that at the last election there was, in the seventeen 
parishes hereinafter named, a conspiracy to suppress, by force and violence, the 
Republican vote. That the means used for that end were night-riding, patrollings, 
whippings, shootings, hangings, burnings, mutilations, assassinations, murder and 
massacre. 

That by this conspiracy from twelve to fifteen thousand Republican voters, who 



7S 

were desirous of voting, and who made earnest efforts to vote the Republican 
ticket, were put in fear of their lives and driven from the polls and prevented 
from voting, and that by the same means from three to five thousand Republican 
voters were forced, against their will and from fear, to vote the Democratic ticket. 

This conspiracy was carried out by armed bodies of men, known by the name 
given them by themselves, as bull-dozers. 

The proofs of this conspiracy, as in evidence before the Senate Committee, 
are : 

First. — The secret Patton letter. 

Second. — The result of the vote, as shown by the tables of registration and 
election. 

Third. — The fact that the persons composing the bull-dozers were all Demo- 
crats and white men, and the parties bull-dozed were all black men and Repub- 
licans. 

F&urth. — The sudden and simultaneous outbreaks of this violence and murder 
before and near the election. 

Fifth. — The conduct of the white communities where they occurred, in this: 

These outrages were connived at and concealed by them. 

They were secretly encouraged. 

They made no attempt to discover and punish the criminals. 

There has been no condemnation of these outrages by the press, by public 
meetings, or by the clergy, and the citizens who have ventured to denounce 
them have been menaced with proscription and persecution, and thus silenced. 

The Democratic managers have falsely pretended that these outrages were not 
perpetrated, or when they have been compelled to admit them, they have falsely 
attributed them to the laxity of the local governments, although well knowing 
that the same terrorism which rendered these outrages possible rendered the 
local government powerless. 

Sixth. — The fact that the effects of these outrages in intimidating the colored 
people were not confined to the parishes in which they were perpetrated, but 
spread to great distances in surrounding and neighboring parishes. 

Seventh. — The fact that in the parish of East Feliciana, John Gair, an ex-Repre 
sentative, and the ablest and most influential leader of the colored people, was 
kidnapped at night in the town of Baton Ronge, forty miles from his home, by a 
sheriff's posse, upon a false charge, wrung by torture from a poor and defenseless 
colored woman, of complicity in the poisoning of a man who was not poisoned, 
but is now alive and well, and who, while on his way in the custody of his captors, 
was forcibly taken from them by an armed company of bull-dozers, under the 
command of one Joe Norwood and Dr. Saunders, and tied to a tree by the road- 
side and shot to death. And, that this horrible and dastardly crime was com- 
mitted by the Democrats from political animosities and to achieve political ends. 
And that all investigation into and inquiry after the perpetrators of this crime 
have been continuously and systematically discouraged and prevented by the 
white community of East Feliciana — and the only investigation made has been 
that made by the Senate Committee, and the Hon. Charles H. Joyce, Representa- 
tive, upon the House Committee. (See testimony before Senator Howe's commit- 
tee, and minority report of House committee, and speech of Hon. Charles H. 
Joyce.) 



79 

Eighth. — The fact that in the parish of Ouachita, shortly before the election, 
Dr. B. H. Dinkgrave, a white gentleman of high standing, irreproachable charac- 
ter, and great ability and influence among Republicans, who was the leader of the 
Republicans in that parish and their main dependence, was deliberately shot and 
killed in open daylight in the town of Monroe, by an assassin, who then rode de- 
liberately away. The assassin has never been discovered, and it is in evidence 
before the Senate committee that this assassination was a political crime, commit- 
ted for political reasons, and by Democrats, and was connived at and investigation 
stifled by the Democrats of that parish. And that the effect produced was to 
cause a thorough and widespread feeling of terror among all the Republicans of 
that parish, and to completely break up all political organizations among them. 

Ninth. — The fact that in the parish of Red River, the shooting of Senator 
Twitchell and the murder of his brother-in-law, Mr. King, were crimes committed 
with like objects, by the connivance of the Democrats, and followed by the like 
results among Republicans as the assassination of Dr. Dinkgrave. 

Tenth — The fact that in the Parish of Ouachita, the horrible murders of Eaton 
Logwood, James Jackson, Primus Johnson, Merrimon Rhodes and Henry Pink- 
ston, were political assassinations of a like character with that of Dr. Dinkgrave, 
and followed by like political results, and were also accompanied by atrocities 
such as were calculated to and did spread a terrible fear and feeling of danger and 
insecurity among all Republicans^ that and neighboring parishes, which lasts to 
this day. 

Eleventh. — The fact that in the parish of East Baton Rouge, the horrible murder 
of William Y. Payne, who had a rope placed around his neck, and was dragged 
with horses until he was dead, and that of Jerry and Samuel Myers, were also 
political assassinations of leading colored people of a like character and with like 
effects to those above enumerated. 

Twelfth. — The fact that in the parish of West Feliciana, the murder of Gilbert 
Carter, Isaac Mitchell and Edward Armstrong were also political murders of the 
fame character and with like political results. 

Thirteenth.. — The fact that iu the parish of East Baton Rouge, the massacre at 
Mount Pleasant, and the dispersal of a colored colony of industrious, sober and 
honest farmers, who'were working the Triplett place, who were accumulating:; prop- 
erty, and who formed a social and political centre for the colored people of that part 
of the parish, was a hidious and dastardly crime, committed by white Democrats 
for political purposes. One revolting and hideous feature of this massacre, 
which distinguishes it from all others, is the fact in evidence before the Howe 
committee, that the sanguinary perpetrators of the crime pursued their victims 
even after death, and concocted and published a malicious lie, charging the 
negroes with having organized for the purpose of killing whites. (For proof of 
all the above-enumerated facts, see testimony before Senator Howe's committee.) 

LIST OF POLITICAL MURDERS AND OUTRAGES BEFORE THE RECENT ELECTION. 

The following is a partial list of the murders and outrages, and the names of 
the parties by whom committed, in four parishes only, as taken from the testi- 
mony before the Howe Committee. Similar crimes were perpetrated in fourteen 
parishes. Want of time prevented the committee from taking testimony in more 
than six parishes, we believe. In these it was not possible to obtain proof of all 
the murders and outrages, and out of this testimony we have only had the time to 
collate the facts relating to four parishes. 



80 



NUMBER OF MURDERS. 

West Feliciana. 
Gilbert Carter, Isaac Mitchell. 

Bast Feliciana. 
Jerry Norman, P. Branch, 

Joseph Johnson, Three colored men, names not given ■ 

Samuel Smith, Marshal Ryer, 

Colored man, name unknown ; Webster Dyer, 

Full Nelson, Two colored girls. 

Colored man, name unknown; Colored boy, dragged to death at 

John Gair, horses' tail. 

Catharine Matthews, 

NUMBER OF SHOOTINGS, WHIPPINGS AND OTHER OUTRAGES. 

West Feliciana. 
Five men discharged by William Ball. 
Primus Pickett and Jupiter Jones, shot at. 
Brent Laws and Marth Gray whipped. 
One colored man whipped, name unknown. 

William Butler, Andrew Jackson, Harrison Douglass, Alfred Morgan, James 
Williams, Daniel Perry, Kelly Martin, discharged for voting Republican ticket. 
Sixty negroes discharged for voting Republican ticket. 
Tom Rice and John Green, shot at. 
Hung up, Riley Norness. 
Isaac Bissell, shot at. 
John Harrison, assaulted with pistols. 
L. H. Lewis, shot at. 

Washington Spooner, threatened with death and driven from home. 
Woodford Root, Jupiter Hunt, Demas Williams, whipped. 
J. R. Watson, shot at and house burned. 
William Jones and Aaron Cummings, driven into swamp. 
James Smith, beaten over head. 

Valentine Emery, prevented by pistols from distributing Republican tickets. 
Andrew Young, driven from home. 
L. T. Cotton, house broken open and driven from home. 

Fast Feliciana. 
Two hundred colored men fled parish. 
Ezekiel Glover, whipped. 
Colored woman, whipped nearly to death. 

Jared M. Harrill, planter, threatened with hanging if he exposed perpetrators. 
James Law, store set on fire. 
Colored men driven to woods in large numbers. 
Henry Smith, sheriff, shot at, and forced to resign. 
Bob Keeler, Ellis Green, Jim Langston, Aaron Carey, woman, whipped. 
Tucker, hung up. 

Henry Lawson, whipped, 200 lashes. 

William Chancy, hung up till he promised not to vote Republican ticket. 
Charles Wilson and Aaron McKenzie, whipped. 
Monroe Miles, taken out and threatened with death. 



81 

Austin Sloan, Henry Lawson, Dangerfield Sloan, Charley Williams, Allen 
Myers, whipped. 

George Riley, assaulted and beaten. 

Judge Dewing, court broken up, and compelled to leave parish. 

Mrs. Perry, Joe Winham, James Lawson, Jack Dyer, William Glasper, whipped. 

• NAMES OF MEN PROVED TO HAVE COMMITTED OUTRAGES. 

West Feliciana. 

Court Smith, Geo. Towns. 

Charles Barrow, Calhoun Hamilton, 

Jos. Stewart, Herman Barrow, 

.Napoleon Riddle, Page Barrow, 

Nelson Ball, Matt. Gilmore. 

Joseph Edwards, Will Gilmore. 

Robert Wilson, Hugh Connello. 

Thos. West, McDunner, 

Robert Phillips, W. J. Ford. 

Fast Feliciana. 

Joe Norwood, Lewis Moore, 

Bob McClellan, Alick Skipwith, 

J. W. Smith, Henry D'Armont, 

Rufus Breton, George Anderson, 

Wm. Mapes, Bill JSTulon, 

Stanhope Cone, Jimmy Jackson, 

Aug. Cane, Aleck Zuggs, 

Frank Wood, John Zuggs. 
Dr. Saunders, 

MURDERS. 

Fast Baton Rouge. 
Jerry Myers, rope put around his neck, dragged a mile by horse, and then hung. 

Samuel Myers, • Archie Stewart, 

Taylor Hawkins, Joe Johnson, 

Geo. Washington, L. Foster, 

Johnson Stewart, Bill Kidd, 

Hugh Fugua, Wilson Rhodes, 

Magee Selves, Henry Martin, 

Charley Robinson, Monroe Beachman, 

Bristow Harrison, Lizzie Richmond — hung„ 

Henderson Pointer, Andrew Isham, 

John Jackson, George Wortryton, 

Win. Y. Paine, Hudson Puritas, 

Sanford Smith, Mrs. Spriggs. 
Paul Johnson, 

WHIPPINGS AND OTHER OUTRAGES. 

Fast Baton Rouge. 
Alice Gilbert, rope put around neck, dragged on ground, house robbed and 
driven from home (page 1591, Howe's Report). 

6 



82 

Benjamin Morgan, Coroner. Warned to hold no more inquests on pain of death. 

Julius Williams, driven from home. 

Jacob Shields, driven into swamps. 

Laten Williams, house broken open, rope put around neck, dragged, beaten, and 
shot at. 

Perry Jones, Abraham Straughter, Matt. Washington, shot at. 

George P. Davis, parish judge, driven from parish. 

Isadore Herron, whipped, rope around neck, and dragged. 

Lewis Brown, whipped. 

Alexander S. Gilbert, driven from home. 

Paul Johnson, dragged by a rope. 

Eight persons, and others, unarmed, compelled by force to vote Democratic 
ticket. 

Reuben Delcomb, whipped and shot. 

Ripley Williams, Matt. Dawson, George Simms, Alfred Abel, James Johnson, 
Wilby Bradford, and numerous others, driven from home. 

Charley Wilson, Lewis Chapin, whipped. 

Monroe Smith, whipped ; 100 lashes. 

Three others driven from home. 

Five named and others, forced to vote against wishes. 

Coleman Brown, shot. 

Pelix Jones, crop destroyed. 

Harriet Bertain and Bertain, shot at and house fired. 

Lafayette McMurray and Richard McMurray, threatened and assaulted with 
pistols. 

Lewis Morgan, shot at. 

William Duplessis, driven to woods. 

Phoebe Ann Wade, house broken open. 

Peter Simms, driven to woods. 

Lewis Gibson, whipped. 

Gilbert Huston, John Lewis, driven from home. 

Miranda Smith, wife of Sanford Smith, house broken open and whipped. 

PERSONS PROVED TO HA^E COMMITTED OUTRAGES. 

East Baton Rouge. 

Henry Kerr, George Kerr, 

Watts, Luke Carpenter, 

A. L. Duncan, Henry Carpenter, 

Manny Carmina, Pat Hood, 

Henry Badley, John Paine, 

Shook Badley, Thomas Brown, 

Joe Brown, Joe Monser, 

W. Dougherty, ' Oliver Hubbs, 

S. Dougherty, Phil. Brashears, 

Charley Booth, Eugene Offord, 

Charley Griffith, William Peake, 

Randall White, Joseph Edwards, 

John W. Smith, Buck Morgan, 



83 

R. H. McClellan, George Jorr, 

Kerrys Catolic, Gilbert Thomas, 

Venter Jones, Barney Williams, 

Hiram Carmina, Nathan Piper. 
Ed. Davis, 

OUACHITA CASE. 

Killed, 

1. Dr. B. H. Dinkgrave, white, August 30, on public highway. 

2. James Jackson, colored, September 15, on public highway. 

3. Marriman Rhodes, colored, body found in Ouachita river. 

4. Ferdinand Bynum, colored, body found in Ouachita river. 

5. Henry Pinkston, colored, November 4, Island. 

6. Infant child of Mr. and Mrs. Pinkston, colored, Island. 

7. Primus Johnston, colored, October 10. 
■8. William Claret, colored, in Cottonport. 

Wounded by Shooting. 

1. Eaton Logwood, colored, October 10, in his own yard. Since died from his 

wounds. 

2. Andrew McCloud, colored, September 4, near Morehouse parish line. 
-3. Henry W. Burrell, colored, public highway. 

4. Spencer Dickerson, colored, public highway. 

6. William Lewis, colored, public highway. 

6. George Shelton, colored, public highway. 

f J. Eliza Pinkston, colored, November 4, at her home. 

8. Benjamin James, colored, November V, public highway. 

9. Hawkins Jones, colored. 

10. Solomon Mathews, colored. 

11. Henry Forster, colored (see hung). 

Hung. 

1. Emanuel Richards, colored, Island 

2. Henry Forster, colored, Island. 

Whipped. 

1. Randall Driver, colored, November 4, his place. 

2. James H. Coleman, colored, November 4, Island. 

3. Willis Fraizier, colored, reported, Island. 

4. Abraham Williams, colored, November 4, Island. 

5. Bryant Simms, colored, Colony. 

6. Cora Williams, colored, November 4, Island. 

Driven from Home. 

1. Robert Long, colored, officer at Trenton. 

2. Aaron Turner, colored, September 23, Island. 

3. Ned Mitchell, colored, Island. 

4. Andrew Harrison, colored, Island. 

5. Frank May, colored, reported, Island. 

6. Lee Poll, colored, Island. 

7. Andrew, McCloud, colored, Island. 

8. George RobertsoD, colored, Trenton. 



84 



9. Mahala Robertson, colored, Trenton. 

10. Manual Richards, colored, September 22, Island. 

11. Giles Roberts, colored, Island. 

12. Jack Davis, colored, September 22, Island. 

13. Oliver Dickerson, colored, Island. 

House Shot Into. 

1. J. "W. Hudson, colored, member of police jury, near Monroe. 

2. Nat Blanchford, colored, I. P. Claibornerow. 

House Broken Into. 

1. Randall Driver, colored, November 4, Island. 

2. Eldridge Lockspur, colored, November 4, Island. 

3. Solomon Mathews, colored, November 4, Island. 

4. Henry Pinkston, colored, November 4, Island. 

5. "William Logwood, colored, November 4, Island. 

6. Sebrum Robinson, colored, November 4, Island. 

House Searched. 

1. Eaton Logwood, colored, September 2 and 4, Island. 

2. William Logwood, colored, November 4, Island. 

3. Eldridge Lockspur, colored, November 4, Island. 

4. Samuel Simms, colored, constable, Colony. 

5. 0. H. Brewster, white, November 6, Monroe. 

6. Wally Moore, colored, November 4, Island. 

7. Anthony Overton, colored, November 6, Monroe. 

Threatened with Violence. 

1. John McWilliams, colored, October 21, 22 and 23, Island. 

2. Charles Hudson, colored, October 21, 22 and 23, Island. 

3. Mark Moore, colored, October 21, 22 and 23, Island. 

4. Aaron Jackson, colored, October 21. 

5. Hawkins Jones, colored. 

6. Nat Blanchard, colored, I. P. Claibournerow. 

7. John Hill, colored. 

8. Jack Clay, colored. 

9. Lem. Jackson, colored, November V, Monroe. 

10. George H. Denton, colored. 

11. John Toran, colored. 

12. Frank Lushington, colored. 

13. Eaton Logwood, colored. 

14. B. H. Dinkgrave, white, corporate limit of Monroe. 

15. Randall Driver, colored. 

Compelled to Take Democratic Affidavits. 

1. Felix McCloe, colored, I. P. Monroe. 

2, I. R. Hall, white, I. P. C. Colony. 

Interfered with and Molested on Public Highways. 

1. Henry W. Burrill, colored, November 3, Cuba. 

2. Elisha Moore, colored, November 3, Cuba. 

3. R. J. Caldwell, white, November 6, near Chauran Bridge. 

4. W. R. Hardy, white, November 6, near Chauran Bridge. 



85 



3. Simon Medlock, colored, November 6. 

6. Steph. "Wood, colored, November 7, officer, near Monroe. 

7. Hermon Bell, colored, November 7, officer, near Monroe. 

8. Dan. Hill, colored, November 7, officer, near Monroe. 

9. Sam. Simms, colored, November 6, officer, Monroe. 

10. Sam, Whitehead, colored, November 6, officer, Monroe. 

11. Jesse Briggs, colored, November 6, officer, near Monroe. 

12. Ben. James, November 7, officer, near Monroe. 

Raped. 

1. Cora "Williams, colored, November 4, Island. 

2. Eliza Pinkston, colored, November 3, Island. 

Persons Shot At. 

1. Henry Clay, colored, public highway. 

2. Solomon Mathews, colored, Island. 

PERSONS PROVED TO HAVE COMMITTED OUTRAGES OR TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN 
ORGANIZATIONS THAT COMMITTED THEM. 



Sam. McEnery. 
Wm. Theobalds. 
Dr. Crosby. 
Jas. Logan. 
Robt. Logan. 
Walter Logan. 
Dr. Young. 
Frank Durham. 
Thomas Lyons, col'd. 
Geo. C. Phillips. 
Thos. T. Aby. 
Buck Boker. 
Jos. T. Sevan. 
Jno. Collins. 
Dave Tidwell. 
Bill Rhodes. 
Joe Mitchell. 
Bob Endom. 
John Mills. 
Jerry Mills. 
Alex. Hamilton. 
Geo. Russell. 
Bill Collins. 
Robt. Wilson. 
Joe Turner. 
Bill Bar. 
Mr. Steele. 
Dr. Kennedy. 
Wyatt Brandon. 
Joe Herron. 



Ouachita Parish. 

Isaiah Garrett. 
P. Miller. 
Capt. McLeod. 
Capt. Cuffington. 
Mr. McLane. 
Bill Scriber. 
F. Dunn. 
D. T. Head. 
Capt. Fred. Cann. 
Harry Wilson. 
John Scarborough. 
Fennell McEnery. 
James Mitchell. 
Henry McEnery. 
Will Howard. 
H.. M. Ball. 
Jim Tombs. 
Steve Grayson. 
Frank Bryham. 
Col. Brown. 
Millard Parker. 
Dan Whitfield. 

Fitzgerald. 

Capt. Renwick. 
John Falk. 
Pink Faust. 
John Harvey. 
Billy Pace. 
Capt. Murphy. 



86 

These outrages were proved before the Sherman Committee, and afterwards 
fully corroborated before the Congressional Committees, with cross-examination. 
Democrats charged with these crimes failed to appear in any case before the 
Senate Committee and deny them. Democratic Senators and Representatives in 
Congress have not pretended to deny these outrages nor their effect. The law of 
Louisiana allows proof, not only of violence on the day of election or during reg- 
istration, but also of intimidation on those days resulting from previous violence. 

EXTENT OF THE CONSPIRACY. 

It is true, and is proved by testimony taken before the Sherman Committee 
and Howe Committee, that the following are the bull-dozed parishes, in which 
all or most of the Republican voters were by violence, outrage, murder and mas- 
sacre, either driven from the polls and prevented from voting at all, or forced to 
vote the Democratic ticket : 

East Baton Rouge. Livingston. 

East Feliciana. Franklin. 

West Feliciana. Caldwell. 

Ouachita. Lafayette. 

Morehouse. Claiborne. 

Richland. DeSoto. 

Grant. Natchitoches. 

It is true, and is proved by the official records in evidence before the Howe 
Committee, that the foregoing parishes had the following registration and cast the 
following vote in 1876 : 

REGISTRATION. VOTE. 

Col'd. White. Rep. Dem. 

East Baton Rouge 3400 1867 1476 1102 

East Feliciana 2127 1004 1736 

West Feliciana 2213 399 778 1248 

Ouachita 2392 992 793 1869 

Morehouse 1830 938 782 1379 

Richland 852 812 277 963 

Grant 608 603 395 518 

Livingston 197 800 121 769 

Franklin 439 587 129 789 

Caldwell 489 589 285 631 

Lafayette .' 928 1351 658 721 

Claiborne 1314 1602 432 1577 

DeSoto 1694 1253 898 1304 

Natchitoches 2955 1782 2099 1761 

21438 14579 9123 1<>367" 

And here is Toombs on the negro in Georgia : 

"TOOMBS TO THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE. 

The poor, ignorant negro — talk of him governing you and me ! It takes the 
higher order of intellect to govern the people, and these poor wretches talk of 
governing us ! My remedy helped us to break that up. We carried them with 
us by bribery and intimidation. I advised it, and paid my money for it. 
[Applause.] You all know it, but won't say it. * * * * 



87 

We got a good many honest fellows into the first Legislature, but I will tell you 
how we got them there. I will tell you the truth. The newspapers won't tell 
it to you. We got them there by carrying the black vote by intimidation 
and bribery [laughter], and I helped to do it !" [Applause.] 

The South is solidly Democratic. Is it any wonder ? This 
state of things was to be reformed under the " conciliation " gov- 
ernment of Nicholls, and here are the results of Governor Xicholls' 
promised reforms, as given by H. C. (Mr. Carroll) of the New 
York Times, admitted by all to be one of the most impartial and 
correct, as well as one of the best, newspaper correspondents in the 
United States. 

"FALSE TO SACRED PLEDGES. 
Fair Promises made only to be broken— What the Democrats of Louisiana 

AGREED TO DO, AND WHAT THEY HAVE DONE — The SCHOOL FUNDS SQUANDERED, 

the Taxes Misapplied, the Capital City falling into Decay — Why ISTew 

Orleans is no longer Prosperous. 
New Orleans, jSov. 21. — During the period that the State of Louisiana was 
governed by Republicans, a majority of the white people, business men and others, 
continually complained that the lack of prosperity which was then apparent on 
every hand was due entirely to ' the corrupt rule of irresponsible carpet-baggers.' 
It was freely charged by fair-minded conservative men, worthy of every atten- 
tion, that the people were taxed beyond all endurance, that the taxes were greatly 
misapplied, that property-holders were being robbed right and left, their estates 
practically confiscated, and they with their families driven into the streets to beg 
or starve. Further than this, it was stated by Democratic speakers, and very 
generally believed by the white people, that the deplorable falling off in the value 
of houses and land which occurred soon after the war, was to be traced directly 
to the evil influences of 'radicals' and ' carpet-baggers.' If a man failed in bus- 
iness he blamed the Government; landlords who had houses and farms lying idle 
and unproductive upon their hands blamed the Government ; if money was lost 
in stocks, the loss was at once attributed to the Government; and even when the 
sugar crop failed, it was not considered in the least ridiculous for planters to de- 
clare that, were it not for ' the thieving Radicals,' the result would have been dif- 
ferent. In short, every ill which the people suffered was charged against the men 
who owed their power to the ' nigger vote.' Every observing and disinterested 
stranger who visited Louisiana during the six years prior to the last Presidential 
election knows that I in no way exaggerate the complaints which were then made 
by the people here. Such observers will remember, also, that at the time in ques- 
tion nearly all the leading white natives joined in declaring that if they could but 
rid themselves of ' the Radical Government,' could place the affairs of the State 
in the hands of men of their own choosing, ' representatives of the wealth and 
intelligence,' all the troubles under which they suffered would disappear. Under 
such a Government, under the rule of ' the native and best,' it was predicted that 
the State would literally blossom like the rose. It was declared that, could the 
Democrats but gain control, taxes would be reduced, the value of property en- 
hanced, the laws respected and properly executed, the credit of the Commonwealth 
strengthened and extended, the value of Louisiana securities increased, business 



88 

made to flourish as it did before the war, and that abundant crops would bring 
wealth and happiness to a contented people. The prosperity was to be general, 
whites and blacks alike were to share in the great revival which was to come with 
the advent of Democratic government. Public water-works and drains on a 
colossal scale were to purify the City of New Orleans and render a recurrence of 
yellow-fever epidemic out of the question ; the school fund was to be augmented 
and properly applied to the benefit of all the people, whether white or colored ; 
the rights of the freedmen were to be respected, and the pay of laborers greatly 
increased. In a word, every happiness which it was possible for a people to have 
was to come to the citizens of Louisiana, could they but succeed in overthrowing 
the corrupt Radicals and placing representative Democrats in power. 

These pleas, and others like them, were made so persistently and with so much 
eloquence, that thousands of people in the North, particularly business men who 
had dealings with Louisiana, began to believe that there must be some foundation 
for them, and so, when at last the long wished for ' day of redemption ' arrived, 
when by the power of shot-guns and the 'policy' of President Hayes the State 
was made 'free' from 'carpet-bag government' and given over absolutely to 
the control of the Democrats, there was much satisfaction, not only in the South, 
but in many parts of the North as well. This new Government went into power 
with a grand flourish of trumpets. At the inauguration of Gen. Nicholls as the 
Democratic Governor of the State, he said, addressing the two Houses of his Legis- 
lature met in joint session: 

I assume the duties of Governor of nay native State under circumstances 
of marked difficulty, and at a period of very general distress. For nine years a 
few men, having no identification with the people of the State, either in feeling or 
interest, have shaped and controlled their destinies. The result of this unnatural 
condition of affairs has been that in spite of a rich soil, genial climate, and im- 
mense resources, we find the people to-day in wretchedness and slavery. The 
very gifts of a kind and beneficent Creator have served to these men as additional 
incentives to acts of oppression and wrong. * * * The material prosperity of 
Louisiana and the happiness of her people must be restored, and this can be ac- 
complished by the truth and energy of the people, co-operating with honesty, 
fidelity, integrity and patriotism on the part of their representatives. Self must 
be sunk, and the general good alone can serve to guide the civil and political ac- 
tion of each citizen. Laws operating upon the whole people without distinction 
of race, class, color, or condition must alone be found in the statute-books, and 
these laws should be thoroughly, fairly and impartially executed. In this way 
confidence and hope will prevail, and the State will speedily become a home of 
happiness and peace for all her children — for the weak as well as the strong, the 
poor as well as the rich. The first object of all Government is to give the largest 
opportunity for development to the individual citizen. I shall devote every energy 
to this great work of restoration, and it shall be a great object of my administra- 
tion to promote kindness, sympathy, confidence and justice between the two races 
that inhabit the soil, and who, with a common interest, should cordially co-operate 
to secure the common good. 

These were fine words. They were supplemented a few days later by the most 
specific promises to the colored people in a letter addressed to a number of co- 
lored senators by Gov. Nicholls. In view of subsequent events, that letter is well 
worthy of reproduction at this time. It reads as follows: 

New Orleans, Jan. 13, 1877. 

Gentlemen, — I respectfully acknowledge receipt of your communication of this 
date, in which you ask me whether ' I will maintain, as Governor of Louisiana, 



89 

the equality of all men before the law, and use the influence of my administration 
to advance the educational, political and material interests and rights of the co- 
lored people, and protect them in the exercise of the rights guaranteed them by 
the recent amendments to the Constitution of the United States and the laws in 
pursuance thereof.' I answer these questions without the slightest hesitation. I 
have, as a candidate for the position of Governor, at all times and at all places, 
stated that I recognized each and every obligation incumbent upon me under the 
Constitution of the United States and of the amendments thereto, and the Consti- 
tution of Louisiana and the laws thereunder; that it would be my bounden duty 
to carry out faithfully and impartially the amendments to the Constitution as well 
as the original Constitution itself; that I recognize that all citizens, whether they 
be white or colored, should be equally entitled to the benefits and protection of the 
law; that I was utterly opposed to class legislation, and that any attempt to legis- 
late so as to deprive the colored people of any of their rights under the Constitu- 
tion of the United States and its amendments would meet my most determined 
opposition. As Governor, I make the same declarations. I will use my utmost 
endeavors as Governor, and with all the influence at my command as such, to pro- 
mote the educational and material interests of the colored people precisely to the 
same extent that I will those of the white people. It will be my constant aim to 
promote kindness, sympathy, confidence and justice between the two races in the 
State. 

FRANCIS T. NICHOLLS. 

These and many other similar promises of Gov. Nicholls have been cordially and 
publicly endorsed by Mr. Wiltz, who is the present Democratic candidate for 
Governor, and by all the men prominent in his party. How have they been kept ? 
As the record shows, they have been broken, every one of them. For a time Mr. 
Mcholls did, indeed, make an effort to live up to his pledges to the black men, but 
he was powerless against the influences of his party' friends, and in his last annual 
Message, commenting upon the Tensas massacre, in which it is admitted that at 
least 20 inoffensive colored citizens lost their lives, he substantially admits that he 
has in some cases been powerless to keep the peace. He, Mr. Wiltz, and their 
Democratic associates, in the most solemn fashion, promised to protect the freed- 
men in their political rights. How have they done so ? The fact that three Con- 
gressional districts in this State, which have undisputed negro majorities of from 
4,000 to 8,000, are now represented by White League leaders is sufficient answer 
to the question. To-day, it is no exaggeration to say, that the colored citizens of 
Louisiana are, for all practical purposes, as far from the ballot-box as they were 
20 years ago. They were to be protected in their material interests. How has 
the pledge been kept ? In many of the remote parishes they have been so shame- 
fully defrauded and maltreated by their employers that they have been forced to 
leave their homes and the sunny land they love so well and seek a dwelling-place 
in strange and far-distant places. In nine-tenths of this State the records of the 
courts will be searched in vain for a case in which a white man has been success- 
fully prosecuted for having defrauded a negro. 

Their educational interests were to be protected. In the most sacred way this 
promise was made to them. How has it been kept? To-day the public school 
system of Louisiana — the excellent system put into operation by ' the corrupt Radi- 
cals ' — is, thanks to the Democratic and Roman Catholic manipulation, in the 
throes of dissolution. It is now confidently predicted here that in another year it 
will receive the coup de grace. Democratic Governments in the South have never 
been friendly to free education. How true this is of Louisiana may be inferred 
from the fact that the last census shows that there are in the State, outside of the 



90 

City of New Orleans, 115,000 white adults who neither read nor write, and that in 
many of the country parishes there are a majority of white adults illiterate to the 
same extent. Hardly had the present Democratic Government been inaugurated 
when the downfall of the admirable school system established by the Republicans 
was commenced. The school board of the city was at once given over to the con- 
trol of the Roman Catholics. The Hon. Thomas J. Semmes, who was made its 
President, is a leading Jesuit, and a majority of its members are ardently its sup- 
porters in every effort to bring the schools as far as possible under the control of 
the Church. While they are engaged in this effort, Democratic politicians, to save 
money for their own purposes, have been actively attacking the system in another 
direction. One of the first steps taken by them when they came into power was 
to reduce the salaries of teachers 40 per cent., promising at the same time to pay 
the stipend which remained regularly in cash at the end of each month. Of 
course, this promise. was only made to be broken. The School Board is now in 
arrears to teachers for every year of the existence of the present Administration. 
The salaries for September last have not yet been paid even in part; default of 
payment having been made in spite of the fact that within the past three weeks 
the City has received in cash $75,000 from other sources than the tax levy. The 
State now owes the School Board $67,000, which, in all probability it will never 
pay. So needy have the teachers become that they have asked the privilege of 
collecting a fee of $1 a month from each of their pupils. There is reason to believe 
that sooner or later they will be permitted to do so. The tax can easily be borne 
by the white people, but in a great many cases its imposition would result in keep- 
ing colored children out of the schools. Still further than this, should the new 
Democratic Constitution be declared adopted, as it doubtless will be at the coming 
election, the appropriation for public education will be cut down one-half. And 
this in the face of the fact that an education fund of over $1,000,000, given to the 
State by the Federal Government in public lands, has been either squandered or 
misappropriated. 

But it is not the colored people alone who begin to see that there is little or 
no reliance to be placed in Democratic promises. Some of the white men are 
also waking up to the knowledge that a change of Government has not brought 
them all the happiness they anticipated. The fact is, and I make the statement 
after careful inquiry among all classes of citizens, that the people of Louisiana are 
not now materially as prosperous as they were under the rule of the much-abused 
Governor Kellogg. It is true that the taxes have been reduced a few mills ; but 
to make up for this reduction, assessments have been increased and the bondholders 
so swindled that the State is to-day absomtelj' without credit in the markets of the 
world. Nor has the fictitious decrease in taxes enhanced the value of property. On 
the contrary, now more than ever before, real estate is a drug in the market, and 
before the Democratic courts there are pending to-day 50,000 suits to recover for 
the State taxps which cannot be collected. Three years ago a gentleman of my 
acquaintance in one of the near parishes bought a plantation for $72,000, a bar- 
gain, as he thought. This, it will be remembered, was while the Republicans 
were in power. To day, under the government of the much lauded Democracy, 
the plantation in question is offered for sale at $50,000, and finds no purchasers. 
Nor is this an isolated case. If necessary, many more of the same sort might be 
cited. What is true of the country is true of the city also. It is almost impos- 



91 

sible to dispose at a fair price of even the most eligible real estate. The wave of 
prosperity which has begun to sweep over the rest of the country has not yet been 
felt here. Business men, shop-keepers, and people of all sorts who live by trade 
complain as they never complained before. In the most prominent thoroughfares 
of New Orleans stores have for months been idle, and grass is literally growing 
high in the streets. Further than this, the many promises of public improve- 
ments made by the Government have been broken with very much the same dis- 
regard of consequences which has characterized the dealings of the Democratic 
leaders with the negroes. As far as can be seen, the taxes are even more shame- 
fully misappropriated than they were claimed to have been under the Republi- 
cans. The streets of the city are shamefully neglected, and in the country the 
roads and bridges are in a much worse state of decay than they were three or four 
years ago. Of the great drains and other public work which were to rid the 
city of all danger from yellow fever, there has been heard not one word. Indeed, 
it was owing to the culpable carelessness of the Democratic officers, as many 
people claim, that the devastating epidemic of last year occurred. However this 
may be, and though the comparison may not be a fair one, it is a very significant 
fact that during the rule of the Republican Health Officer the city was almost en- 
tirely free from yellow fever. In short, and to sum up, the people of Louisiana, 
white and black, are to-day under the government of the Democracy, in a much 
worse condition material^ and financially than they were three years ago under 
• the corrupt Radicals.' There are many who would have the country believe 
that this deplorable result has been directly brought about by the short-sighted 
selfishness of those who now hold political power. So far as the condition of the 
colored people is concerned, this view of the case is to a very large extent a just 
one. It is not fair, however, to attribute the lack of prosperity which prevails to 
any Government or to any political party. It is ridiculous to hold "William Pitt 
Kellogg responsible for the decline in the real estate ; it is equally ridiculous to 
charge Francis T. Nicholls or his Government, weak and vacilliating though he 
has been, with driving business away from the cotton factors and commission 
merchants of New Orleans. The falling off in values and in business is due en- 
tirely to natural causes, to the diversion of trade caused by the construction of 
new routes of travel, to the establishment of new distributing points in the West, 
and to the change in the relations of labor and capital which have occurred since 
the war. New Orleans is no longer able to control the trade of the Mississippi 
Valley. The greater part of that trade has been diverted to other channels, and 
will never come back to this city. The sooner the people of Louisiana's capital 
become alive to this fact, and to the further one, that their colored laborer is not 
only worthy of his hire, but that he must be treated as a citizen of the country 
and a political equal — the sooner they learn these truths, get out of old ruts, seek 
new enterpises, and go to work with an energy and uncomj)laining determination 
to succeed which is characteristic of business men in other parts of the country, 
the sooner they will find that substantial prosperity which can be bestowed by no 
political party and which is never won by lazy fault finding. H. C." 

The consequences of this policy of barbarism of the poor crea- 
tures who suffered ; who were its immediate victims, none but 
those victims and God can ever know. 



92 

Is it any wonder that the exodus followed ? For the facts in de- 
tail of this sad chapter in the social and political history of the 
country I must refer the reader to the recent investigation of the 
Senate Committee as appointed on the motion of Senator Voorhees. 
Neither his report as chairman nor the minority report of Senator 
Windom is before me, and I could not use them if they were. The 
limits of this little text- book does not allow it. 

We know, however, the grand facts. People do not become 
voluntary exiles from the homes of their childhood and their an- 
cestry without a cause. And when we see in bleak November and 
December the banks of the Mississippi thronged with fleeing exiles 
from their country, and denied even the poor privilege of going by 
the ordinary modes of travel ; when we see strong but hungry men 
who have been robbed of the fruits of their season's labor; shiver- 
ing children and women with their babes in their arms fleeing 
from the horrors of Klu-Kluxism, as did the mothers of Bethle- 
hem from the terrors of Herod, it behooves us as the keepers of 
this grand inheritance of liberty to look to it, not to pause and 
ponder over, or pray over it — pray for mercy to enter the heart of 
the Klu-Klux and bread for the poor wronged victims? — but to 
look it straight in the face as the soldiers were wont to do during 
the war when they knew something hotter than hot coffee was com- 
ing, and turned one to the other remarking, " business boys." If we 
do not we may some day be asked, not by divine lips either, where 
are those men that you took out of bondage and signed a bond in 
your father's blood as guarantee of those rights. Don't deceive 
yourselves, my fellow citizens, you cannot answer that question to 
the civilized world by putting in Cain's plea : "Am I my brother's 
keeper ?" 

But then we will be at once told that this condition of things is 
necessary to the success of the Democratic party ; that that party 
must get into power in order to make it certain that there shall be 
"no troops at the polls." It is in fact as it was in the old slave 
days. The same " irrepressible conflict." It has come to this that 
the Democratic party and the Union cannot stand together, and 
that being the case, I for one say, if the Democratic party and the 
Union cannot stand together, then in Gods name, let the Demo- 
cratic party go down and the Union stand. 

This brief sketch of the Solid South and the zeal and readiness 
with which the Northern Democratic Senators follow the lead of 
their Southern masters, would be incomplete without the following 
exhibit of their present attitude and feeling towards what are 
known as the Civil Rights Amendments to the Constitution, 
namely: the XIII, XIV, and XV. 

On the 7th of January, 1879, the distinguished Senator from 
Vermont, who is ever at his post and always in the right, intro- 
duced the following resolutions in the Senate : 

"Resolved, as the judgment of the Senate, That the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
fifteenth amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been legally 



93 



ratified, and are as valid and of the same paramount authority as any other part 
of the Constitution ; that the people of each State have a common interest in the 
enforcement of the whole Constitution in every State of the Union, and that it is 
alike the right and duty of Congress to enforce said amendments and to protect 
every citizen in the exercise of all the rights thereby secured by laws of the gen- 
eral character already passed for that purpose, and by further appropriate legisla- 
tion, so far as such enforcement and protection are not secured by existing laws; 
and that it is the duty of the executive department of the Government faithfully 
and with diligence to carry all such laws into impartial execution, and of Congress 
to appropriate all moneys needful to that end. 

Resolved, further, That it is the duty of Congress to provide by law for the full 
and impartial protection of all citizens of the United States, legally qualified, in the 
right to vote for Representatives in Congress, and to this end the Committee on 
the Judiciary be, and it hereby is, instructed to prepare and report, as soon as may 
be, a bill for the protection of such rights, and the punishment of infractions 
thereof." 



For nearly a month, on yarious days when these resolutions 
were called up, the Democrats in the Senate sought by all sorts of 
parliamentary tactics, such as amendments, motions to indefinitely 
postpone, etc., to avoid a vote on them. But they could not escape 
the watchfulness of " the Cato of the Senate " (as Mr. Edmunds 
has been recently designated by a warm and distinguished friend 
of his) by these by-paths, and on the 5th of February, Mr. Ed- 
munds succeeded in getting a direct vote on the resolutions, and 
taking the vote on each separately, the yeas and nays being called. 

Here is the vote on the first resolution : 

" The result was announced — yeas 23, nays 16 ; as follows : 







YEAS— 23. 




Anthony, 


Edmunds, 




Kirkwood, 


Plumb. 


Booth, 


Ferry, 




McMillan, 


Rollins, 


Bruce, 


Hamlin, 




Mitchell, 


Spencer, 


Burnside, 


Hoar, 




Morrill, 


Teller, 


Cameron of Pa., 


Howe, 




Oglesby, 


Windom. 


Cameron of Wis., 


Kellogg, 




Paddock, 








NATS— 16. 




Bailey, 


Coke, 




Gordon, 


Kernan, 


Bayard, 


Davis of West Va. 


, Harris, 


Lamar, 


Beck, 


Eaton, 




Hereford, 


Morgan, 


Cockrell, 


Garland, 




Hill, 


Yoorhees. 






ABSENT— 37. 




Allison, 


Dennis, 




McPherson, 


Sharon, 


Barnum, 


Dorsey, 




Matthews, 


Shields, 


Blaine, 


Eustis, 




Maxey, 


Thurman, 


Butler, 


Grover, 




Merrimon, 


Wadleigh, 


Chaffee, 


Ingalls, 




Patterson, 


Wallace, 


Christiancy, 


Johnston, 




Randolph, 


Whyte, 


Conkling, 


Jones of Florida, 


Ransom, 


Withers." 


Conover, 


Jones of Nevada, 


Sargent, 




Davis of Illinois, 


McCreery, 




Saulsbury, 




Dawes, 


McDonald, 




Saunders, 





94: 



And here is the vote on the second : 







" YEAS— 22. 




Anthony, 


Ferry, 




McMillan, 


Rollins, 


Bruce, 


Hamlin, 




Mitchell, 


Spencer. 


Burnside, 


Hoar, 




Morrill, 


Teller, 


Cameron of Pa., 


Howe, 




Oglesby, 


Windom. 


Cameron of Wis., 


Kellogg, 




Paddock, 




Edmunds, 


Kirkwood, 




Plumb, 








NAYS— 1 1. 




Bailey, 


Davis of W. 


Va., 


Hereford, 


Morgan, 


Bayard, 


Eaton, 




Hill, 


Voorhees, 


Beck, 


Garland, 




Kernan, 




Cockrell, 


Gordon, 




Lamar, 




Coke, 


Harris, 




Maxey, 








ABSENT— 37. 




Allison, 


Dawes, 




McDonald. 


Sharon, 


Barnum, 


Dennis, 




McPherson, 


Shields, 


Blaine, 


Dorsey, 




Matthews, 


Thurman, 


Booth, 


Eustis, 




Merrimon, 


Wadleigh, 


Butler, 


Grover, 




Patterson, 


Wallace, 


Chaffee, 


Ingalls, 




Randolph, 


Whyte, 


Christiancy, 


Johnston, 




Ransom, 


Withers." 


Conkling, 


Jones of Florida, 


Sargent, 




Conover, 


Jones of Nevada, 


Saulsbury, 




Davis of Illinois, 


McCreery, 




Saunders, 





Make your own comments. For myself, I am a good deal in 
the fix of the old man who, going up hill with a wagon load of 
apples, had the tail-board burst out and the apples go flying or 
rolling down the hill. He was silent. He couldn't do the subject 
justice, and he wasn't particularly pious either. 

And yet the Southern rebels and Northern Copperheads are all 
for the Union and the Constitution, " for the old flag, and an ap- 
propriation." And they have a Union soldier!! for their candi- 
date. Don't you suppose old Oliver Cromwell turned in his coffin, 
and tore his shroud a little, when he heard of the treachery of 
General Monk? 

The Copperheads had a standing cry during the war — " The 
Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was ;" but the poor old 
Union wouldn't " was " worth a cent till the calm broad brow of 
Grant confronted its enemies at Appomattox, and laid them out 
forever. 



PART VII. 

The Democratic Party, by the late Zachariah Chandler. 

The most fitting close to this little compilation is the speech of 
the late and lamented Senator Chandler, delivered in the Senate on 
the 30th of June, 1879. He said : 

" Mr. President : Whether the resolution to adjourn, passed by the House, is 
acted upon to-day or not, is immaterial. "We have now spent three months in 
this Capitol, not without certain results. We have shown to the people of this 
nation just what the Democratic party means. The people have been informed as 
to your objects, ends and aims. By fraud and violence, by shot-guns and tissue 
ballot?, you hold a present majority in both houses of Congress, and you have 
taken an early opportunity to show what you intend to do with that majority thus 
obtained. You are within sight of the promised land, but, like Moses of old, we 
propose to send you up into the mountain to die politically. 

" Mr. President: We are approaching the end of this extra session, and its 
record will soon become history. The acts of the Democratic party, as mani- 
fested in this Congress, justify me in arraigning it before the loyal people of the 
United States on the political issues which it has presented, as the enemy of the 
nation, and as the author and abettor of rebellion. 

" First. — I arraign the Democratic party for having resorted to revolutionary 
measures to carry out its partisan projects, by attempting to coerce the Executive, 
by withholding supplies, and thus accomplishing by starvation the destruction of 
the Government, which they had failed to overthrow by arms. 

Second. — I arraign them for having injured the business interests of the 
country by forcing the present extra session, after liberal compromises were 
tendered to them prior to the close of the last session. 

Third. — I arraign them for having attempted to throw away the results of the 
recent war by again elevating State over National sovereignty. We expended 
$5,000,000,000 and sacrificed more than three hundred thousand precious lives to 
put down this heresy and to perpetuate this national life. They surrendered this 
heresy at Appomattox, but now they attempt to renew this pretension. 

Fourth. — I arraign them for having attempted to damage the business interests 
of the country by forcing silver coin into circulation, of less value than it repre- 
sents, thus swindling the laboring man and the producer, by compelling him to 
accept eighty-five cents for a dollar, and thus enriching the bullion owners at the 
expense of the laborer. Four million dollars a day is paid for labor alone, and by 
thus attempting to force an eighty-five cent dollar on the laboring man you 
swindle him daily out of $600,000. Twelve hundred million dollars are paid 
yearly for labor alone, and by thus attempting to force an eighty-five cent dollar 
on the laboring man you swindle him out of 8180,000,000 a year. The amount 
which the producing class would lose is absolutely incalculable. 

Fifth. — I arraign them for having removed without cause experienced officers 
and employees of this body, some of whom served and were wounded in the Union 



90 

army, and with appointing men who had in the Rebel army attempted to destroy 
this Government. 

Sixth. — I arraign them for having instituted a secret and illegitimate tribunal, 
the edicts of which have been made the supreme governing power of Congress in 
defiance of the fundamental principles of the Constitution. The decrees of this 
junta are known, although its motives are hidden. 

Seventh. — I arraign them for having held up for public admiration that arch 
rebel, Jefferson Davis, declaring that he was inspired by motives as sacred and as 
noble as animated Washington ; and as having rendered services in attempting to 
destroy the Union which will equal in history Grecian fame and Roman glory. 
(Laughter on the Democratic side and in portions of the galleries.) You can 
laugh. The people of the North will make you laugh on the other side of your 
faces ! 

Eighth. — I arraign them for having undertaken to blot from the statute-book 
of the nation wise laws, rendered necessary by the war and its results, and in- 
suring ' life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' to the emancipated freedmen 
who are now so bull-dozed and ku-kluxed that they are seeking peace in exile, al- 
though urged to remain by shotguns. 

Ninth. — I arraign them for having attempted to repeal the wise legislation 
which excludes those who served under the rebel flag from holding commissions 
in the army and navy of the United States. 

Tenth. — I arraign them for having introduced a large amount of legislation for 
the exclusive benefit of the States recently in rebellion, which, if enacted, would 
bankrupt the National Treasury. 

Eleventh. — I arraign them for having conspired to destroyed all that the Re- 
publican party has accomplished. Many of them breaking their oaths of allegi- 
ance to the United States, and pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honors to overthrow this Government, they failed, and thus lost all they pledged. 
Call a halt. The days of vaporing are over. The loyal North is aroused and 
their doom is sealed. 

I accept the issue on these arraignments distinctly and specifically before the 
citizens of this great Republic. As a Senator of the United States, and as a citizen 
of the United States, I appeal to the people. It is for those citizens to say who is 
right and who is wrong. I go before that tribunal confident that the Republican 
party is right and that the Democratic party is wrong. 

They have made these issues, not we, and by them they must stand or fall. 
This is the platform which they have constructed, not only for 1879 but for 1880. 
They cannot change it, for we will hold them to it. They have made their bed, 
and we will see to it that they lie thereon." 

I submit this pamphlet with the hope that, in the hands of pub- 
lic speakers on the Republican side in this campaign, it will meet 
a want that I have felt, in common with others, in political cam- 
paigns which I have been in pretty steadily ever since 1854, when 
the great battle against Slavery and Southern Olligarchy began in 
earnest. It is intended to relieve the weary speaker to some extent 
from carrying, and trying to " read as he runs," armfuls of speeches, 
documents and newspapers, and to place within his reach a ready 



97 

and reliable reference to the topics he may choose, and sometimes 
without choice, be obliged to discuss. I have endeavored to keep 
myself out of sight as much as possible, and omitted many things 
that I hope to say orally before the fight closes. For I believe in 
stated preaching at irregular periods. What we all have to do now 
is to work and vote ; vote for men representing the principles we 
believe to be the best for the country and for man. 

After a masterly exposition of the right of suffrage, its enjoy- 
ment and the obligations it brings with it, here is what Mr. 
Evarts says as to its practical use and exercise, in his Cooper Insti- 
tute speech of last year, from which I have already quoted : 

"OBJECTIONS TO THROWING AWAY VOTES. 

You may ver}? well understand, gentlemen, that a people having- this attachment 
to suffrage, and this intelligence of its vital importance, don't like very well, when 
election day comes to throw it away. They don't like very well to see any of their 
neighbors throw it away. They don't like very well to see any other of their 
countrymen jostled and hustled at the polls, so that they can't exercise the suf- 
frage; and so, when it comes to be a practical question, you find the strong sense 
of the American people requiring a very good account from any citizen who thinks 
it worth his while to stay away from the polls, or to vote so that his vote won't 
count. [Applause and laughter.] It is bad enough to have to vote under circum- 
stances where your vote won't be counted [laughter], but it is a great deal worse to 
vote where your vqte can't count at all. [Applause.] Well, now, gentlemen, we 
don't vote in the air. We don't vote for abstract principles. We don't even vote 
whether the Republican party, or the Democratic party, or the Greenback party 
shall be uppermost in this country. The only way that we vote is to vote for 
some candidate that represents the party that we want uppermost [applause], and 
the principles and measures and policies which we want engrafted upon the po- 
litical action of the Government ; and the only way we can do that is by voting 
for some candidate that is produced in the methods of our politics for the suffrages 
of his fellow-citizens. 

Well now, the law and the Constitution, as I have said, regulating the ballot and 
the suffrage, who shall regulate this preliminary process of selecting and present- 
ing candidates who are to embody principles and be the vehicle through which 
the will of the people in regard to the policies and measures and principles of 
the Government shall be effectively carried out ? Well, gentlemen, there is^the 
puzzle, and there we have the criticisms, friendly and unfriendly, of the system 
of Civil Service reform ; and then we have intermediate between the presentation 
of candidates and the deposit of votes, agitations of private conscience and of pri- 
vate interest, as to whether or no there is that conformity between the candidate 
and principles and the purposes and policy which the voters desire to see ob 
served. Well, it is the duty of every convention, and should be their highest art 
as well, to impersonate the principles of a party in candidates who would give the 
best assurance of the purposes of the party being carried out by their election, 
and the best assistance in conciliating and attracting votes to enlist in that ob- 
ject; and it may be said in general, I suppo=e, that, that is the purpose of conven- 
tions, and that that in general is the successful result, leaving always some regret 



98 

that some one else is not nominated, and an internal conviction in man}' minds 
that if they could have had their own way in the matter it would have been in- 
£nitely better for the American people. [Applause.] 

Now, when names do not wholly comport with the private judgment of this or 
that citizen as to what would have been the best impersonation of the principles, 
and purposes of the party, what is the voter to do ? Why do as every sensible 
man does when placed in a situation where action one way or the other is to be 
taken — give to the leading principle and the leading interest the determination of 
what he shall do. If anybody does not think that the maintenance in power of the 
Hepublican party in the councils and authority of the Nation is an important 
thing, let him deposit his vote upon some lesser consideration. [Laughter.] If he 
•does not think it of any importance whether Mr. Cornell [applause], or Mr. Rob- 
inson, or Mr. Kelly is fit to be Governor of the State of New York, why let him 
vote for all these, and his ballot will be thrown out. [Laughter.] If you do not 
think that it is of any importance next year how the State of New York goes this 
year, why then vote in the air, but never lose sight of this general duty, which 
never can be safely neglected. If any Republican voter thinks he can serve his 
party better now and better in the future by voting for Governor Robinson or for 
Mr. Kelly, in God's name let him do so. [Applause.] If he thinks that the best thing 
he can do with this precious gift of the suffrage, given to him for his own right, 
and as a trust for all this country all over it, if he thinks that the best thing for 
him to do with that precious trust is to fold it away in a napkin, let him be sure 
that when disasters come he has nothing to answer for, that his conscience will ex- 
cuse him then for a deserted duty." 

I commend these words of wisdom and practical good sense to 
Kepublicans everywhere, East, West, North and South. Let us 
have no "voting in the air." Kally, boys, once more for the Union 
and the whole Constitution; for Garfield, Arthur and victory. Do 
this, and victory certainly awaits us on the 2d of November. Let 
us have a Nation, realizing Whittier's hope that : 

" Wheresoe'er our destiny sends forth 

Its widening circles to the South or North, 
Where'er our banners flaunts beneath the stars, 
Its mimic splendors and its cloud-like bars, 
There shall Free Labor's hardy children stand 
The equal sovereigns of a Freeman's land." 



APPENDIX 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 



The Republican party, in National Convention assembled, at the end of twenty- 
years since the Federal Government was first committed to its charge, submits to 
the people of the United States this brief report of its administration. It sup- 
pressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the 
national authority. It reconstructed the Union of the States with freedom instead 
of slavery as its corner-stone. It transformed four million human beings from the 
likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous 
work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist. 
It has raised the value of our paper currency from 38 per cent, to the par of gold. 
It has restored upon a solid basis payment in coin for all the national obligations, 
and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our ex- 
tended country. It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where 6 per 
cent, bonds sold at 86 to that where 4 per cent, bonds are eagerly sought at a 
premium. Under its administration railways have increased from 31,000 miles in 
1860 to more than 82,000 miles in 1879. Our foreign trade has increased from 
$700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 in the same time, and our exports, which were 
$20,000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were $264,000,000 more than our im- 
ports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed 
the ordinary expenses of Government, besides the accruing interest on the public 
debt, and disbursed annually more than $30,000,000 for pensions. It has paid 
$880,000,000 of the public debt, and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has 
reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,- 
000. All the industries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages 
have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming 
prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican 
party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this con- 
vention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and 
purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts : 

1. "We affirm that the work of the last twenty-one years has been such as to 
commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the fruits of the costly victories 
which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved ; that 
the peace regained should be cherished ; that the dissevered Union, now happily 
restored, should be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this generation 
should be transmitted undiminished to future generations ; that the order estab- 
lished and the credit acquired should never be impaired ; that the pensions 
promised should be paid ; that the debt so much reduced should be extinguished 



100 

bj* the full payment of every dollar thereof ; that the reviving industries should 
be further promoted, and that the commerce already so great should be steadily 
encouraged. 

2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law and not a mere con- 
tract ; out of Confederate States it made a sovereign nation ; some powers are 
denied to the nation while others are denied to States, but the boundary betw r een 
the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national and 
not the State tribunals. 

3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, 
but it is the duty of the National Government to aid that work to the extent of 
its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate of 
the intelligence in the several States; and the destiny of the nation must be 
guided, not by the genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. 

4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an 
establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected 
against the influence of sectarianism while each State is exposed to its domination. 
"We, therefore, recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same 
prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, and also to forbid the appropria- 
tion of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. 

5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in 1876, that the duties levied for the purpose 
of revenue should be discriminate as to favor American labor ; that no further 
grant of the public domain should be made to any railway or corporation ; that 
Slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity — polygamy — must die 
in the Territories; that everywhere the protection accorded to a citizen of Amer- 
ican birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption. That we esteem it 
the duty of Congress to develop and improve our water courses and harbors, but 
insist that further subsidies to private corporations must cease ; that the obliga- 
tions of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the hour of battle 
are undiminished bj* the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory. Their per- 
petual honor is and shall forever be the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the 
American people ; we welcome in the benefits and privileges of our free institu- 
tions all those who seek their enjoyment and are willing to assume the obligations 
while they participate in the benefits of American citizenship. The influx to our 
shores of hordes of people who are unwilling to perform the duties of the citizen, 
or to recognize the binding force of our laws and customs, is not to be encouraged ; 
and believing that respectful attention should be paid to evils complained of by 
our brethren on the Pacific coast, we urge the renewed attention of Congress to 
this important question, and suggest such changes of our existing treaty obliga- 
tions as will remedy these evils. 

6. That the purity and patriotism which characterizes the earlier career of 
Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our im- 
mediate predecessor to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire 
him in his career as chief executive, and that history will accord to his adminis- 
tration the honors which are due to an efficient, just and conscientious fulfillment 
of the public business, and will honor his interpositions between the people and 
proposed partisan laws. 

7. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism 
and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust of office and patronage; that to obtain 



101 

possession of the National and State governments and the control of place and 
position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve 
the freedom of suffrage ; have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have 
labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards 
the vote of a majority of the States in the House of Representatives ; have endeav- 
ored to occupy by force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people 
of Maine, and rescued by the courage and action of Maine's patriotic sons ; have, 
by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legis- 
lation to appropriation bills, upon whose passage the very movements of govern- 
ment depends; have crushed the righis of the individual; have advocated the 
principle and sought the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have endeav- 
ored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inestimably 
good results — freedom and individual equality ; and we affirm it to be the duty 
and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all 
the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony which may be practicable ; 
and we submit to the practical, sensible people of the United States to say whether 
it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country, at this time to 
surrender the administration of the National government to a party which seeks to 
overthrow the existing policy under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring 
distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence and hope. 



THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 

The Convention at Cincinnati adopted unanimously the following declaration of 
principle : 

The Democrats of the United States in Convention assembled declare : 

First. — We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions 
of the Democratic party as illustrated by the teaching and example of a long line 
of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last 
National Convention of the party. 

Second. — Opposition to centralizationism and to that dangerous spirit of en- 
croachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, 
and thus to create, whatever be the form of Government, a real despotism ; no 
sumptuary laws ; separation of church and State for the good of each ; common 
schools fostered and protected. 

Third. — Home rule ; honest money — the strict maintenance of the public faith — 
consisting of gold and silver and paper, convertible into coin on demand ; the 
strict maintenance of the public faith, State and National, and a tariff for revenue 
only. 

Fourth. — The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a general and 
thorough reform of the civil service. 

Fifth. — The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights, and must 
and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. 

Sixth. — The existing administration is the representative of conspiracy only, 
and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and deputy mar- 



102 

shals to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unprecedented use of the 
veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insults the people and imperils 
their institutions. 

Seventh. — The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, upon a false count of the elec- 
toral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be 
President, and for the first time in American history the will of the people was 
set aside under a threat of military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system 
of representative Government. The Democratic party, to preserve the country 
from the horrors of a civil war, submitted for the time in firm and patriotic faith 
that the people would punish this crime in 1880. This issues precedes and dwarfs 
every other. • It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than 
ever addressed the conscience of a nation of freemen. 

Eighth. — We execrate the course of this administration in making places in the 
civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a reform by statute which 
shall make it forever impossible for the defeated candidate to bribe his way to 
the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people. 

Ninth. — The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candidate for the 
exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his countrymen, and from 
which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the 
Democrats of the United States with sensibility, and they declare their confidence 
in his wisdom, patrioti°m, and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a common 
enemy, and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has 
chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard 
him as one who, by elevating the standards of public morality and adorning and 
purifying the public service, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his 
party. 

Tenth. — Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on the seas and 
on the land. No discrimination in favor of transportation lines, corporations, or 
monopolies. 

Eleventh. — Amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more Chinese immi- 
gration except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully 
guarded. 

Twelfth. — Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public 
land for actual settlers. 

Thirteenth. — The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, 
and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorants and the commune. 

Fourteenth. — We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a 
Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditures $40,000,000 a 
year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the national honor abroad, 
and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the 
Government as shall insure us genuine and lasting reform in every department of 
the public service. 



103 



GENERAL JAMES A, GARFIELD. 

It is no part of the plan of this hand-book to give any extended 
biography of the candidates, as these will, no doubt, be furnished 
in abundance by the National Committees. A brief notice, how- 
ever, seems not out of place. 

General Garfield was born in the village of Orange, Cuyahoga 
County, Ohio, in November, 1831, and will, consequently, be, at 
the time of his election to the highest office in the gilt of his 
countrymen, Forty-nine years old. 

In 1861, when the Rebellion broke out, he was serving as a Sen- 
ator in the Legislature of his native State. He instantly deter- 
mined to enter the army, and on the 14th of August, 1861, was 
commissioned Lieut.-Colonel of the forty-second Ohio. 

His service was with that splendid army ? the Army of the Cum- 
berland, with which he remained until after the battle of Chica- 
mauga, and by that time Garfield had attained the rank of Major- 
General, his last promotion being for gallant and heroic conduct 
on the bloody field of Chatanooga. This promotion to the highest 
field rank within the space of two years is enough to fix his record, 
and a glorious one it is, as a soldier. 

He was equal to every occasion, and the occasions were of the 
grandest and most trying. I think the records of the war will 
show no instance of a young man without any previous military 
training or education who displayed more wonderful military 
capacity, with the single exception of General John A. Logan, who 
is a born soldier and a great commander by nature. 

A year before he left the army, and without solicitation on his 
part, General Garfield was elected to Congress, to fill the place 
made vacant by the death of the illustrious Joshua R. Giddings. 
He has been in the House of Representatives continuously ever 
since, and that he has been able to fill a place occupied so long by 
his great predecessor, to gain distinction in that place, and to stand 
to-day as he does, the peer of any man on the floor of the House 
as a prudent and profound statesman and orator, and among the 
first of parliamentary leaders, is record enough for any man, and it 
may be added that, in the Senate, which he would by right enter 
on the day that he will be inaugurated President of the United 
States, he would meet with but few superiors in the qualities I 
have just referred to. 

The best biography of Gen. Garfield that I have ever seen is 
Mr. Whitelaw Reid's, in his first volume of " Ohio in the War," 
and all the better because it is not written for the present occasion. 
It ought to be published by the Republican Committee and scat- 
tered broadcast throughout the country. 



104 

GENEKAL CHESTEE A. AETHITE. 

The Successok of Wheeler as Vice-President. 

General Arthur, of New York, our candidate for Vice-President, 
I never saw but once, and he then impressed me as a cultured, 
quiet, modest gentleman, with a remarkable capacity for general 
business, and he has shown to the country since that time (1872) 
that he has an equal capacity for public affairs. He is now, as 
near as I can figure from dates before me, about fifty years old, of 
commanding presence, and with a look and expression that in a 
moment inspires you with respect and liking for the man. The 
following slip, taken from the New York Times of the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1880, gives a better pen-portrait of the General than any- 
thing I could say, and I applaud it the more cheerfully because it 
was written when neither General Arthur nor his friends thought 
of him in connection with his present position : 

"IN POLITICS YEARS AGO. 

In these later days, people, even the men who are most intimately connected 
with politics, and who take a most active part in political discussions — at least 
those of the younger generation — have but little idea of the intensity, warmth 
and excitement which marked such controversies in the past. During the days 
of Jackson and Clay even the boys bore a share in the hickory-pole raisings for 
the one, or the ash-pole raisings for the other, and it is a matter of record 
that during such ceremonies fierce fights, which often resulted seriously, occurred 
even among the children. Such a battle marked the advent of Chester A. Ar* 
thur, as well as of many other prominent New York Republicans, into politics. It 
was in a country village in the interior of the State, during the memorable campaign 
which resulted in the success of Polk over Clay, that the boys of "Whig parentage 
determined in honor of ' Harry, the hero,' to raise an ash-pole. While they 
were engaged in doing so they were set upon by a number of the lads of the 
Democratic ' Pork and Dollars' persuasion, and for a time it seemed as if their 
pole would be taken possession of by the enemy. Even while the battle was at 
its height, however, young Arthur, placing himself at the head of his compan- 
ions, led one desperate charge upon the followers of Polk, drove them from the 
field with broken heads and disfigured faces, and then, amid shouts of applause 
from the older spectators, who hugely enjoyed the sport, raised the ash-pole to 
the honor of Harry Clay and the Whig Party. Commencing thus early — he was 
only about fourteen years of age at the time of this occurrence — to take part in 
political affairs, and being from childhood up admonished that no good thing 
could come out of the Democracy, young Arthur naturally, when the time came, 
took warm sides with every movement which promised to break down slavery — 
the corner-stone of Democracy. 

At an early age entering the law office of E. D. Culver, who has been called 
1 one of the original emancipation lawyers,' he was not long in imbibing an abhor- 
rence for everything which smacked of bondage. It was his good fortune — at 



105 

first in connection with Mr. Culver, and afterward upon his own responsibility — 
to be connected with the memorable Lemmon Slave Case, which a quarter of a 
century ago created the most unbounded excitement, not only in this State, but 
throughout the Union ; which called forth special messages from the governors 
of two States, and which, all things considered, was one of the most remarkable, 
as well as most momentous, legal contests ever tried in this country." 

"A MEMORABLE LAWSUIT. 

The history of this then most important, though now almost forgotten, case is 
deeply interesting. It seems that in November, 1 852, Jonathan Lemmon and Juliet, 
his wife, both of whom had before that time been citizens and residents of the 
slave State of Virginia, determined to take up their residence in Texas, also a 
slave State, and with eight black people — their chattels — passed by way of steamer 
from Norfolk to New York, their intention being to remain in this City until it 
became possible for them to secure a suitable vessel on which to continue their 
journey to Texas. On arriving in New York they took up their residence in a 
hotel, and their eight slaves were landed and conveyed to a boarding house at No. 
3 Carlisle street. While in this place they were discovered by a colored man 
familiarly named 'Louis Napoleon' — a man of no education, but of considerable 
force of character, and who, by his connection with the case, was destined after- 
ward to become famous throughout the country. This man — whether acting upon 
his own responsibility or with the aid and encouragement of other persons to this 
day remains in doubt — knowing of the condition of the eight Lemmon slaves, and 
being informed that the laws of the State of New York permitted no human being 
to be detained in a condition of slavery, caused a petition to be presented to Elijah 
Paine, then one of the Justices of the Superior Court of the City of New York, 
for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the production of the colored people before 
him, and an inquiry into the causes of their detention. The petition set forth, in 
substance, that eight colored people — two men, two women, and four children — 
'without being detained by any process issued by any court of the United States, 
or by any judge thereof — without being committed or detained by virtue of a final 
judgment or decree of any competent tribunal of civil or criminal jurisdiction, or 
by virtue of any execution issued upon any such judgment or decree ' — were vir- 
tually held prisoners in the City of New York. It was also set forth that the 
cause or pretense of such detention or restraint was that the persons so restrained 
were held under the plea that they were slaves, and that from their place of con- 
finement they were to be conveyed by negro traders to Texas, where they were 
to be sold and reduced to a condition of slavery. It was further alleged that such 
detention of these persons for such purposes within the limits of the free Com- 
monwealth of New York was diametrically at variance with the letter and spirit 
of the laws of the Empire State, and the petitioner prayed that a writ of habeas 
corpus be directed to those having the negroes in their custody, commanding them 
to bring the alleged slaves before the court forthwith. The writ was promptly 
issued by Judge Paine, and the eight black people were brought before him. In 
reply to the writ the Lemmon family, as respondents, stated that the eight per 
sons in question were legally their property, their chattels; that they were slaves, 
and that being so, and sailing from the port of Norfolk, in the slave State of Yir- 



106 

ginia, they never touched at, landed or came into the harbor of New York except 
for the purpose of passage or transit from Virginia to the State of Texas — that is 
to say, from one slave State into another. 

To this return the relator, represented by E. D. Culver and John Jay, as counsel 
(H. D. Lapangh and Henry L. Clinton appearing for the respondents, and repre- 
senting the interests of the slaveholders), at once interposed a general demurrer, 
on the ground that the facts stated in the return did not constitute a legal cause 
for the restraint from liberty of the colored people. The case was argued at 
great length, and, in an elaborate opinion, Justice Paine decided, in substance, 
that upon the free soil of the Empire State of New York no human being could, 
for a moment, remain in a condition of slavery, and that whenever slaves from the 
South set foot upon that soil, unless they could be detained under the national law 
relating to fugitive slaves, they at once lost their shackles and became, in every 
sense of the word, freemen. He held that the Fugitive Slave Law was inoperative 
in regard to the eight so-called Lemmon slaves, and did not affect them, and he, 
therefore, directed that they be set at liberty, and be allowed to go where they 
would." 

General Arthur will get the electoral vote of his own great State, 
to whose principles of freedom he has ever been so true. 



GENEKAL WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 
Democratic Candidate for President. 

I have seen General Hancock ; that is all. I know him, how- 
ever, as all know him, to be a splendid soldier and good field com- 
mander. He entered West Point in 1840, graduated and entered 
the army in 1844. Some over-partial friend of his in an article in 
the Washington Post of the 25th of June instant — evidently pre- 
pared beforehand, and one cannot help suspecting by a member of 
his Gettysburg staff, rather over does the thing, and wants General 
Hancock elected because of his personal bravery and daring in the 
field. What nonsense ! Why personal bravery, although of the 
first importance, and always the first to elicit admiration is cer- 
tainly no rare or uncommon quality with the American soldier of 
any rank, and was especially conspicuous among officers during 
the war. Who ever yet heard of a graduate of West Point turn- 
ing his back to the enemy? It is as natural to an American 
soldier to be brave in battle, as it is for him to divide his last 
ration with a hungry comrade. 

I would, I hope, be the last to pluck a leaf from the well-earned 
laurels of General Hancock, but a soldier who can endorse the 
solid South, and its ways, and render possible a continuance of 
these barbarities, is not the soldier whom the American People 
want for President. 



107 

Mr. English has always been a Democrat ; before, throughout, 
and since the war. He served four terms in Congress, became a 
banker, and is said to be very rich, and that, I believe, is all his 
warmest admirers, if he has any, can say for him. 

The following article from the New York Times of the 25th of 
the present month (June) which, independent of its subject, is one 
of the best newspaper articles ever written, expresses so well the 
real sentiment of the people of this country that I give it in 
preference to anything I could say : 

" THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET. 

It is a peculiarly constituted party which sends rebel brigadiers to Congress 
because of their rebellion, and which nominates a Union general as its candidate 
for President of the United States because of his loyalty. Tilden might have 
said with Louis Napoleon : ' I represent a principle, a causae, and a defeat,' for 
he had at least copiously protested against centralization and militarism, he had 
done something to purify the public service, and he was the only possible repre- 
sentative of the claims of a "defrauded" party. But Hancock — what potency is 
there in his name to awaken proud memories, what suggestions are there in his 
career to quicken the flagging energies of a moribund party ? Does anybody 
know what Gen. Hancock thinks about the principles of finance, about the tariff, 
civil service reform, inter-State commerce, or free ships ? Does anybody care 
whether he be a competent judge of men, one fairly equipped to give the country 
a pure administration, and to stand between it and corrupt or hasty legislation ? 
Is there a man who knows Gen. Hancock, even superficially, who can think with- 
out a scornful smile, of the possibility of his becoming the President of the United 
States ? His godfathers in baptism may not have dreamed when they gave him 
his name that the child would grow to be indeed a Winfield Scott, very much 
diluted, and it probably did not occur to the Southern delegates who brought 
about his nomination that they were staking all their hopes of power upon an in- 
flated Franklin Pierce. Already we are asked to credit with ' an accurate 
knowledge of the principles of constitutional government' a soldier who had in 
him enough of the politician to forget that he was sent to govern Louisiana, not 
to echo the palaver of the crafty intriguers who had quickly taken the intellectual 
measure of the Major-General. We shall next be invited to have faith in the 
latent capacity for statesmanship of a man whom the managers of his campaign 
must keep under lock and key if they would prevent him from making an ass of 
himself, and the admiration of a trustful community will, ere long, be directed to 
the chastened eloquence of the letter of acceptance of a candidate who could not 
have talked for ten minutes to the convention which nominated him without con- 
vincing even them that they had placed at the head of their ticket a pretentious 
blockhead. 

' It was entirely fitting that a convention which nominated a Northern general 
to resurrect a Confederate Government should select a millionaire banker with a 
hard-money record to help his party to carry in October a State which has been 
and is the hot-bed of inflation and repudiation. William H. English is just as 
certainly a man of decided ability as his associate on the ticket is the very essence 
of commonplace. Were it a question of his election as President, it might be a 



108 

profitable task to compare his training and achievements in civil life with those 
of James A. Garfield. But it would be more than ridiculous to mention in the 
same category a man whose reputation for statesmanship rests on a few ' poppy- 
cock phrases ' and one of the foremost of American legislators. Everybody re- 
members how the Democratic ticket of 1872 was depicted by Nast. This year 
the fluttering inconsequential addition to Greeley's coat-tails will have to be re- 
placed by the massive solidity of a Vice-Presidential candidate who will have to 
make believe very hard that he is the tail of a ticket of which Hancock is the 
head 

The fearful and wonderful oratory which marked the close of the convention 
was worthy of the cause of the elect of the fire-eaters — the Bombastes of the latest 
Democratic attempt to bridge the ' bloody chasm.' The sudden elevation of John 
Kelly, who but a day before had been treated with contempt and contumely, into 
the position of a dictator of the policy of the National Democracy, was a 
thorougly appropriate climax to the inconsistencies of a body which regarded 
neither principle no'r precedent. The men who went to Cincinnati ' over the 
slaughtered body of the Democratic Party,' who ' stabbed Robinson to the 
heart,' and went 'with hands still bloody' to claim the places of those who had 
stood faithful, have been recognized as controlling the disposal of the Presidency 
of the United States. ' Bolting ' has been crowned with applause in a Democratic 
convention, and the fortunes of the party have been staked upon the solidity of 
the Irish-Catholic vote of the North and the fraudulenl Bourbon vote of the 
South. But the w ire-pullers of Cincinnati have reckoned without their host. 
Though ' Col.' Fellows and John Kelly clasp hands before a Democratic conven- 
tion, though the cause of the Brigadiers be once more the cause of Tammany, 
there is no political cement strong enough to reunite the party factions of this city 
and State. Tilden is not yet ready to become the Thurlow Weed of the local 
Democracy, full of superannuated wisdom and garrulous memories, and Tilden's 
friends are still less ready io share place and power with TammanyHall. The Demo- 
cratic ' love-feast ' was doubtless a most encouraging spectacle to hordes of hungry 
office-seekers, but the very causes that brought it about will prevent the realiza- 
tion of the hopes it awakened. Bitter dissensions are not healed by the shaking 
of hands, personal injuries are not wiped out by a flow of turgid oratory, and 
lucrative patronage is not surrendered on a hurrah. New York is as far from 
being won as it was on the day the convention met, and every day that makes the 
significance of the Cincinnati nominations clearer to the apprehension of the Amer- 
ican people will render their triumph more difficult in this or any other doubtful 
State. 



B ° 183 



/ 






^> 






i* ., 



U ** ' •sis- ^ <£ •■- 




V .••VL'*. cv 










,4» 









^ ^ "• 










& ., 



°o 



<fe. V 



V>° 


















^^ 



:V +~ '"' J" 










'•. ^o 




^ . 









r oy 








& ■ ... 



v *ir;^ .*fr 






^ <&' /AVykV " ^ ^ ' - 



>^. 






rt^m^s .^ v ^w^ . ♦♦ *% ^k^ ^ 



LI.IIMIV ..M.YN. * ^ 





<^ **T75" % * <G* 



^J.'»- 1977. c°\^ 

n ST >^USTINE 
FLA. 



4* ■• 






** # ^ 0° *Cy?5%^- ^ 







; ^o^ 



1 * *^ °^ 




